SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- Representatives of the Cuban Women’s Federation (FMC) organization admitted to the foreign press that gender violence and femicides have increased since the coronavirus pandemic.
Dania Rodríguez and Omaida Hernández, heads of international relations for the FMC, interviewed by the Spanish media outlet Rojo y Negro, acknowledged that the number of femicides has increased, but they did not use this term that implies the responsibility of the State and institutions in these acts of extreme violence, but rather referred to “femicides.”
“This year, and especially since the pandemic, there has been an increase in gender violence and femicides. In Cuba, we use the term femicide, not feminicides (since this term defines that institutions are complicit in institutional violence and we affirm that Cuban institutions are not),” they told the Spanish newspaper.
The specialists also stated that although the “Comprehensive Strategy for the Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence and Violence in the Family Setting” was approved, there is no Comprehensive Prevention Law in Cuba.
“We continue to work on prevention, especially through the Federation. The motto is ‘Zero Tolerance’ and we are studying the causes of this increase. The most important task at the moment is to empower women,” they said.
The FMC representatives also referred to a lack of awareness regarding gender-based violence.
In this regard, they acknowledged that there is a lack of training in this regard and attention to victims.
“At police reporting offices, cases of violence can be reported, but the professionals who work there need to be trained and more women need to be available to assist victims,” they said.
For them, the “problem” is that “only 3% of female victims report it.” They added that they are “working to create observatories in the police and hospitals.”
Meanwhile, cases of femicide on the island continue to be reported on social media by independent feminist platforms, where these events are constantly being made visible.
The Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (OGAT) and the feminist platform YoSíTeCreo en Cuba (YSTCC) recently verified a new case of femicide in the province of Santiago de Cuba, bringing the total number of cases recorded so far this year across the country to 32.
The crime has a particularly serious connotation, according to the platforms, as it was committed “against a tenth grade pre-university teenager” named Yenifer Vargas Gómez, who died on Tuesday, August 13, at the children’s hospital in the city of Santiago de Cuba.
Vargas Gómez’s ex-partner attacked her with a knife, causing fatal injuries.
