The independent Cuban feminist platforms Yo Sí Te Creo and Alas Tensas attacked this Wednesday against the People’s Supreme Court, which this Tuesday confirmed the life sentence for two men sentenced in 2022 for feminicide.
“As observers who risk our security to register, sensitize and prevent femicide violence in Cuba, we are opposed to this cause being used by the punitive populism that is evidenced in the note from the Supreme People’s Court,” both organizations say in a joint statement made public on their social networks.
The response to the murders of women must be, they consider, “prevention and reparation.”
Similarly, they insist on their “clear and reiterated” demands to the State, including the definition of the crime of femicide, access to official murder figures, the implementation of care protocols for people affected by gender violence, the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women and their children who are in danger and a comprehensive law against gender violence.
“None of them have been addressed so far,” they state, so they consider the sentences against the defendants “of cases 366 and 77 of 2022”, which took place in two provincial courts in Havana and Ciego de Ávila, as “punishments exemplary to evade the obligations of the State of prevention, reparation and guarantee of non-repetition of gender violence”.
The independent feminist platforms insist on their “clear and reiterated” demands to the State, including the classification of the crime of femicide
The two convicted, Yadier Delvá Simón and Alexander Nápoles Téllez, had appealed their sentence, but the high court rejected both appeals.
“Both individuals were sentenced to perpetual deprivation of liberty, as perpetrators of two crimes of murder, by depriving of life, using bladed weapons and blunt instruments, which had been his wife and mother of his only child, in the case of the first of the defendants and, the second, a previous couple, once she decided to separate from him”, explained the press release broadcast by official media.
The high court “took into account that these events inevitably mark the future of the minor children of the victims and arouse total revulsion and absolute rejection by society, which defends inclusion, equality and non-violence,” added the court. text.
Delvá Simón asked to be exonerated alleging a “deep state of mental alteration”, but the court considers that the testimonial, documentary and expert evidence disproves this and demonstrates his responsibility. In his case, the penalty is added to the withdrawal of guardianship over the son he had in common with the victim.
Nápoles Téllez, for his part, pleaded repentance, but the judges attribute falsehood to him and argue that the crime was amply proven.
The Supreme Court adds in its note that article 345 of the new Penal Code, in force since last December 1, provides for the crime of murder “sanctions of 20 to 30 years, perpetual deprivation of liberty or death” to whoever “gives death of a woman as a consequence of gender violence” which, “evidences the will of the Cuban State to guarantee protection and legal attention to these, severely punishing those declared responsible for these acts”.
The attache arrives shortly after the president Miguel Diaz-Canel said that there will be “zero tolerance” with sexist violence, which he described as an “unacceptable act”. The statements were made in April in the framework of a meeting called Women’s voices for gender non-violenceheld in Santa Clara.
The addition comes shortly after President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that there will be “zero tolerance” for violence against women, which he described as an “unacceptable act.”
“A single violated woman is not only a blow to the feminist tradition of the Revolution, it is an unacceptable act for our socialist society,” Díaz-Canel stressed in a year in which they have already been assassinated. at least 27 womenaccounted for to a large extent by the platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo, but also by the independent press, since the ruling party, like other crimes, does not keep an official record.
The known figure triples that of last year, when up to May nine murders were counted, although it cannot be ruled out that the ability to count is improving as the associations consolidate. In 2022, these platforms were able to verify 36 femicides.
The most recent official Cuban statistics on intimate partner violence appeared in the 2016 National Survey of Gender Equality in which 10,698 women participated.
Of these, 26.7% of women between the ages of 15 and 74 claimed to have suffered some type of violence in their partner relationship in the 12 months prior to the study. In addition, only 3.7% of the victims requested institutional help.
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