The body was found on a busy railway section of the city. The authorities ruled out that it was an accident with a train.
MADRID, Spain.- Cuban authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found this October 19 next to the train line in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The event occurred in a section located between Paseo de Martí and Avenida Patria, an area used daily by pedestrians seeking to shorten the distance between both arteries.
According to a official note of the Cuban Railway Union, the preliminary investigation determined that the death was not related to a railway accident. The section where the discovery occurred is only used for reversing maneuvers of national train cars and, according to the entity, no convoy circulated in the area the previous night.
The fact was initially reported by the independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on social networks, who reported that the body was found during the day and that police officers cordoned off the area to begin the investigations. According to witnesses, the body remained at the scene for several hours, which caused a crowd of people and a climate of unrest among neighbors.
In the comments of the publication, a woman identified as Carmen Zayas Vallejo stated that the victim would be “André”, her neighbor from Sampedrito. Other users expressed fear and pointed out the growing sense of insecurity in the city.
“My God, no one can stop this,” wrote Yoandris Rodríguez García, while Odisa Reyes lamented that “right now we will not be able to leave the house,” alluding to the climate of tension generated by unclarified events.
So far, neither the identity of the victim nor the cause of death have been officially reported. The authorities assured that they will continue the investigations and that they will keep the population informed of the progress.
The case has generated commotion among the people of Santiago, who demand quick and transparent responses in a context marked by the lack of timely official information before the numerous violent incidents that occur in Cuba.
The past September left a shocking balance of violence in Cuba: at least 11 murders, 4 femicides and 15 robberies documented in different provinces. The cases, compiled from official reports, publications on social networks, independent media and sporadically some state media, show a pattern of growing insecurity that contrasts with the silence of the authorities, who do not publish official crime statistics.
