CDMX, Mexico. – Vanelis Macola Sierra was murdered by her ex-partner on the morning of February 28 in the town of Tuinucú, belonging to the Taguasco municipality, in the province of Sancti Spíritus. With her murder, the month of February closes with nine verified femicides.
Around 6:00 in the morning, when the victim was preparing to go out with her 10-year-old son to drop him off at school and later go to work, her ex-partner intercepted her outside the house, taking advantage of the fact that she was a inconspicuous path.
“He was hunting her and when he came out he went over to her. She told the boy to run and he took refuge in a nearby house. A neighbor tried to break in, but the killer threatened to cut him off. That same neighbor called the police, but when they arrived he had already finished with her, ”he told CubaNet a cousin of the victim, who asked to protect her identity.
The attacker, a bricklayer known as “El Lento”, fled after murdering his ex-partner. Until the moment of publishing this note, he had not been captured by the Police.
This man had a history of gender violence and had even previously served a criminal sentence for causing serious injuries to a woman, confirmed the source consulted.
“It’s not just that no one has the right to take another’s life, it’s also the cruelty with which some men are killing women. That man did not just want to kill my cousin, he wanted her to suffer while she did it, ”says the victim’s relative.
Vanelis, a 37-year-old nurse, suffered around 30 cuts, located mainly in the abdominal area and chest.
So far, in 13 of the 15 provinces of the country, at least one femicide has been reported during 2023. As far as news is known, Vanelis Macola is the first woman murdered in Sancti Spíritus this year and number 16 in the entire country.
From 2019 to the present, the feminist platform YoSíTeCreo in Cuba has been able to register 129 femicides in the country, which is barely an underreporting, since the State does not publish the official figures for these crimes.
When this femicide is confirmed, YoSíTeCreo qualified the current scenario as “alarming, worrisome and hopeless, given the immobility of the Cuban authorities.”
Given the state’s denial of this scourge, the organization recommends betting on the citizen response for the prevention of gender violence, specifically femicides.
In the next display, CubaNet presents brief profiles with the known data of the victims of the femicides reported in Cuba so far this year. This is a visualization that we hope we don’t have to add new names to.
