Julio, a 71 -year -old Cuban peasant, decided to sell all his last year cattletired of the “vandals” that stole them at night and then market meat on the black market.
“They have killed many peasants a lot. EFE With a tired face.
The stress for not achieving the milk quota that had to deliver to the State and the lack of resources to pay a guard was the drop that filled the glass for this pair of peasants of the town of Vegas, on the outskirts of Cárdenas, in Matanzas.
Your case is not isolated. The theft and illegal sacrifice of cattle – a practice typified as a crime in the country – has been a time ago that returns to the scene of the crudest way every time a new economic crisis hits.
However, for July, with several GDP falls behind him, this level had never been reached.
Confirmed tendency to decrease: less than three million cows after government counting
Increase crime
There are no updated figures, but the few available data – dispered at the newspaper library and the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) – reflect that their perception is not far from reality.
In 2022, Cuba notified the loss of 82,000 cows for theft and illegal sacrifice, 145 % more than the previous year. In that same year, Matanzas was the third province in which that crime was most detected: 8150, almost three times more than in 2021.
Another peasant of Vegas, who asked to remain anonymous, assures EFE That the increase in cattle theft, especially with violence, can not only be explained by the social cost of the crisis.
“After the Covid passed we have had some immense difficulties in our country, and from that date the mentality of many has been totally wrong. They wanted to take things with the easiest: go against a peasant, who gets up at 3:00 in the morning to milked his cow, and, when he arrives where he has it, he appears dismembered,” he laments.
This situation is, by itself, a drama with three legs: it means less dairy production in a country with a chronic milk shortage; It leads to ruin to field workers, many with lands in usufruct and with a limited margin of gain; and evidences the black market muscle as the only way to get meat.
According to official data cited by the state environment Havana Tribune In 2023, Cubans currently consume 7 % of the animal protein they should ingest per month.
Robberies with violence
A young farmer, who also asked not to give his data, assures EFE that among the “Guajiros” of Vegas, attacks with improvised firearms have already been suffered.
“In recent years it has worsened at a huge speed. It had always happened, but the minimum. Not to this category. And many people are getting rid of animals. What are you going to do? Or misfortune you or miserable someone,” he says frustrated.
Whether due to malnutrition, illegal sacrifice or by age, the number of head of cattle has been reduced in recent years.
According to official data cited in the Cuban press, the country went from 3.2 million in February 2024 to 2.9 million in January this year. In 2019, the number was in the surroundings of 4 million.
In this regard, the Cuban government has reiterated a hard hand speech: from January to August last year the Cuban courts judged 1,615 people for “behaviors associated with the crime of illegal sacrifice of major cattle and traffic of their meats.”
But Julio does not seem enough: “It is not easy. You have to take them on the spot. Because many times the act (of the complaint) is raised and all there is a cow.”
