Diosdeisis Sandoval Dama was attacked in her own home, one of the most unsafe places for women.
MIAMI, United States. – The magazine’s Gender Observatory Tense Wings (OGAT) and the YoYesTeCreo platform in Cuba (YSTCC) confirmed this Tuesday a new feminicide in Cuba, that of the young home worker Diosdeisis Sandoval Dama, which occurred in the neighborhood of La GüineraArroyo Naranjo municipality, Havana.
With this case, the organizations bring to 41 the total number of femicides that have occurred and verified in the country in 2025.
According to the joint publication by OGAT and YSTCC, Sandoval Dama was attacked on November 13 in her home by her ex-partner. The aggressor dragged her to the public road and left her injured on the street, where family members tried to help her. The victim was the mother of a little girl from a previous relationship, who, according to the same statement, is now in the care of her father.
According to the same record presented by both observatories, since January 1 of this year and until this Tuesday, in addition to the 41 femicides, the murder of a man “for gender reasons” and 15 attempted feminicides have been verified.
Furthermore, both NGOs count “three cases that need access to police investigation” to determine whether or not they were femicides and complain about the lack of official information, which limits the complete verification of the facts and the definitive classification of the crimes.
The note adds that the observatories are investigating other possible cases of femicidal violence in several provinces of the country (one in Santiago de Cuba, two in Camagüey, two in Artemisa, one in Villa Clara and one in Granma), which suggests that the number of sexist crimes on the Island could be even higher.
At the beginning of last July, the Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality (OCIG, state) reported that the judicial processes concluded in 2024 accounted for a total of 76 Cuban women aged 15 or older murdered for reasons of gender. (These are not strictly the victims of femicides that occurred in 2024 on the Island, but only those involved in judicial processes concluded that year and collected by the Complementary Statistical Information Subsystem of the Supreme People’s Court).
Although the official OCIG report avoided using the term “feminicide”, the statistic corresponds, according to its definitions, to cases of extreme gender violence that resulted in intentional homicides. Of the 76 judicialized murders, 55 were perpetrated by the victim’s partner or ex-partner, and 21 by other known people.
Since 2019, the OGAT and YSTCC They have verified at least 300 femicides in Cubadespite operating in a hostile environment characterized by the criminalization of feminist activism, restricted access to institutional sources and the lack of a legal classification of feminicide in Cuban legislation.
While the authorities use expressions such as “murder for gender reasons” or “extreme gender violence”, independent groups insist on the need to name the problem as feminicide and demand the creation of public registration protocols and a comprehensive law against gender violence.
The Cuban State does not systematically publish annual statistics with detailed methodology nor does it offer disaggregated data with an intersectional approach accessible to citizens. This institutional opacity continues to be an obstacle to measuring the true magnitude of the phenomenon.
The OGAT and YSTCC maintain support lines and a mechanism for reporting and verifying femicides and attempts, supported by citizen complaints, media coverage and work in the territory. Its methodology—based on community verification and public documentation—is available in its institutional channels.
