The femicides of Miriam Isern Mompié in the municipality of Manzanillo (Granma) and of Yanet Mejías González in San Luis de Jagua (Santiago de Cuba) and the attacks suffered by six trans women in Cárdenas (Matanzas) by a group of five men, raise the alert for the increase in sexist violence in Cuba.
Mompié’s body was found by his son last Sunday. The 59-year-old woman was “killed with a knife”, public CubaNetHe also had a blow to the head. His ex-partner, with a criminal record, was arrested the following day in the province of Camagüey.
Last Friday, Yanet Mejías González was murdered with a machete. Her ex-partner and perpetrator of the crime, Michael León, turned himself in the same day.
Mirielis Garbán, cousin of the perpetrator, commented to Radio and Television Martí that the subject “had already been in prison.” She also said that Mejías González, 24, worked at the Gustavo Machín Psychiatric Hospital and “had several family problems” since she separated from León.
With these two cases, there are already 44 femicides on the Island so far this year.
“In a country with more than 40 femicides in just the first six months of the year, the few existing resources are used by the political police to repress, imprison, and silence women”
The platform Yo Sí Te Creo in Cuba (YSTCC) had informed last Monday through the account of Twitter that they were working on the information received about two alerts of sexist violence in Santiago de Cuba, one in Trinidad, another in Melena del Sur and a recent one in Manzanillo.
Violence against women is one of the issues on which there is no official information in Cuba, alerted the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (OGAT). “This prevents citizens, civil society and academics from evaluating the extent of this social phenomenon.”
“In a country with more than 40 femicides in just the first six months of the year, the few existing resources are used by the political police to repress, imprison, and silence women who want to be an active part of the country’s political life,” lamented OGAT, alluding to the “short-term” forced disappearance of activist Eroisis González.
This Wednesday, the transgender actress Kiriam Gutiérrez Pérez denounced that at the corner of Tenería and Rubí, in the city of Cárdenas, Matanzas – a meeting place for the LGBTIQA community – a group of men threw stones and bottles, causing injuries to six trans women. In the Online Police unit and Velázquez did not accept the complaint, because the agents argued that “hate crimes based on gender do not proceed.”
Those affected presented certified documents of the injuries and stationed themselves outside the municipal prosecutor’s office. “Enough of hate crimes, impunity, discrimination,” demanded Gutiérrez Pérez. “Cuba is worse every day. Women, old men and women, boys and girls are violated and the competent authorities do not work, except to repress those who dissent.”
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