Sexist violence in Cuba has claimed two new victims. Karina Betancourt, 41, and Samira Lescar, The wolfa 30-year-old trans woman, were murdered in recent days by their respective ex-partners, as the platform has published on her Facebook account. I do believe you in Cuba (YSTCC). With these they add up to 43 confirmed femicides so far this year.
Betancourt died on June 10 and left behind four minor children, the note added, although details about where he lived at the time of his death or whether the attacker has already been detained by the police are unknown. “This case has been verified by the joint effort of the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory, the Cuban Alliance for Inclusion and the Femicide Observatory,” details YSTCC, which also adds that in the methodology with which it works “possible people Victims of femicide are divided into: girls, adolescents and women (cis and trans)”.
Lescar, actress and model, was murdered on June 17 in the city of Camagüey, by “her ex-partner, who on several occasions would have wanted to resume the relationship and not leave her life,” the artist and LGBTI activist Kiriam explained on Facebook. Gutiérrez, who classified the crime as a “transfemicide”. “She stabbed him four times in different parts of his body, compromising the delicate area of his heart,” she added.
The Cuban feminist collectives confirmed 34 sexist murders at the end of 2022, although three months later they updated the confirmed figure to 36. The data for these last six months already exceeds the entire previous year. The activists have insisted on their call to the Cuban government to declare a “state of emergency” for “gender violence.”
The Cuban feminist collectives confirmed 34 sexist murders at the end of 2022, although three months later they updated the confirmed figure to 36
The work of these feminist collectives, together with the dissemination of femicides in the independent media, has helped to focus on cases of sexist murders and disappearances of Cuban women in recent years.
Its activists demand a comprehensive law against gender violence, as well as the implementation of comprehensive prevention and care protocols for victims, and the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women and their children in danger.
However, although last April, President Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that there would be “zero tolerance” for violence against women, the government response has been lukewarm and the Government does not recognize the existence of platforms such as YSTCC.
The official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) presented at the beginning of this month the Observatory of Cuba on Gender Equality that will include statistics of “women who have been victims of intentional homicide as a consequence of gender violence in the last 12 months,” but whose number is imprecise because court data is taken into account.
The People’s Supreme Court (TSP) reported in mid-May that in 2022 there were 18 convictions for sexist murders, all with penalties of more than 25 years in prison and reported that “the majority age range of the victims ranges from 20 to 44 years”. The figure handled by the TSP represents just over half of the 34 femicides registered last year.
The information was published days after the court itself confirmed –in an unusual press release– the life imprisonment of two men previously sentenced for sexist violence.
These are the first sanctions against perpetrators of femicides – who were punished for the crime of murder, given that the crime of gender violence is not criminalized on the island – made public this year and corresponding to cases from 2022.
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