Havana/Three young people were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a motorcyclist in Santiago de Cuba, in what the Prosecutor’s Office itself calls an “exemplary trial.” Although the report published on January 29 does not report on what date the trial was held, nor does it reveal the identity of the victim or the attackers, or when the homicide was recorded, the details coincide with the murder of Yorlandi Rodríguez Valenciano, a police officer from the Micro 9 Police Unit in the José Martí District, on October 1, 2024.
Then, various independent media reported that the body of the man, 38 years old and father of two girls, appeared in the vicinity of the Alejandro Urgellés Multipurpose Room, a place reported as very busy, dangerous and poorly lit.
Rodríguez Valenciano died as a result of several stab wounds and the motive for the crime would have been the theft of his motorcycle, as was the case tried in the Popular Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba.
The three convicted people agreed to steal a motorcycle and sell its parts on the black market
According to the official statement, the three convicted people agreed to steal a motorcycle and sell its parts on the black market. To do this, they met in the vicinity of the same place where the police officer’s body was found in 2024, on the side of Las Américas Avenue, a place described as “dark and far from homes.”
“One of them carried out tasks of sentinel in this place, while two others went out to the vicinity of the Plaza de la Revolución Antonio Maceo, in search of a motorist. It was in this way that they contacted the victim and asked him to give them a ride to the place where the third party was waiting,” the report indicates.
According to this story, one of the two people who boarded the motorbike had a knife and attacked the driver in the abdominal region, which caused a perforation “in the liver, right kidney and colon.” In total they made “27 wounds, while the guard took the engine and left the site to the place where they later dismantled it into pieces.”
In it post of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office regarding the sentencing of these three people, some comments refer to the punishment being “exemplary” because “a police officer” was involved. In these messages they question whether that penalty would have been the same if the victim had been a civilian: “How many family members have lost loved ones in the same way and have been flexible with their sanctions. Let’s wait for other cases to see if they act in the same way.”
“How many family members have lost loved ones in the same way and have been flexible with their sanctions”
Crime in Cuba in 2025 increased by 115% compared to 2024, according to the most recent report from the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit (OCAC) published on January 31, which collects this data since 2023. In total, the organization identified and verified 2,833 crime reports, compared to 1,317 in 2024 and 649 in 2023. If compared to that year, the figure has grown by 336.58%.
According to its figures, in 2024 there were 167 murders, while last year 152 were recorded. Although a decrease is reported, the report places violent deaths at 173, including femicides, while the perpetrators were 170, of which only four were women.
As for robberies, the record has multiplied exponentially, reaching 1,536 in 2025 – in Matanzas alone there were 311, in Granma 220 and Las Tunas 189. The figure represents an increase of 74.55% compared to 2024, and 479.62% compared to 2023.
The OCAC also indicates that Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Matanzas “remained the main scenes of lethal violence, which suggests the persistence of territorial dynamics associated with accumulated social conflict.”
