Havana/Hours after reporting the feminicide of Miriela Mesa Hernandez45 years old, in Ciego de Ávila, this Tuesday the Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo observatories in Cuba reported a new murder due to sexist violence in the country. This is Maidelín Reyes Hernández, who was allegedly attacked by her ex-partner on September 24 in Camagüey.
According to the report, the 49-year-old woman was murdered in her home, in the El Van neighborhood, in the municipality of Vertientes. The NGOs indicated that Reyes Hernández leaves behind a daughter and two granddaughters who were under his care.
The report also mentioned the death of the carrier Heidy Leon Dominguezin Havana. The observatories reported that the murder of the young pedicab driver was “with extreme violence” on the night of October 23. The attack, reported a day later by 14ymedio – which this newspaper does not count as feminicide – occurred in the middle of the street, when the young woman was already preparing to return to her home, in the Altahabana neighborhood, in the municipality of Boyeros.
The NGOs indicated that Reyes Hernández leaves a daughter and two granddaughters who were under his care.
Domínguez “fought like a lioness defending her pedicab” – her main means of support – from the attackers, a friend of the victim said on Facebook. The young woman was stabbed and the attackers fled the scene. Two other young women who accompanied her were seriously injured.
In their report, the observatories also reported 15 attempts at feminicide so far this year and indicated that they are after the confirmation of three other cases: one in Santiago de Cuba, another in Villa Clara and one more in Mayabeque.
With the murder of Maidelín Reyes, the list of deaths due to gender violence on the Island stands at 34 – according to the count of 14ymedio–, seven of which were recorded only in August, the month with the most cases. In 23 of these crimes, more than a third, the attacker was the victims’ husband or ex-partner.
In addition, there are five murders of women, including that of Heidy León Domínguez, that were not classified as femicides. Three of them were reported in Havana, another in Granma and one more in Ciego de Ávila.
There are five murders of women, including that of Heidy León Domínguez, that were not classified as femicides
Last year, this diary counted 52 femicides from independent records. According to figures from the Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality, last year a total of 76 gender-related murders were tried in the country, in which the victims were over 15 years old. The agency does not specify the dates the crimes were committed, but it is most likely that they occurred in 2023 and 2024.
The Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Supreme Court and other institutions announced this year the joint development of a computerized, but not public, administrative registry to collect data on femicides in the country, although they have not given more details about it.
According to independent counts, from 2019 until this Wednesday, the Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo observatories in Cuba have documented 304 murders due to sexist violence on the Island, “a figure that represents only an under-reporting of gender violence” in the country.
