Last Tuesday night, Dayris Fuentes was allegedly murdered at the hands of her ex-partner. The violent incident occurred in Zuluetas, a community in the municipality of Remedios, in the province of Villa Clara.
According to a friend of the victim, the attacker took advantage of the darkness of the night and in the middle of a blackout, stabbed her to death and left her body lying among some bushes, near her own house.
Yanelys Núñez, from the Alas Tensas gender observatory, considers “that of course, there is an increase in violence throughout the country. In all senses. Precariousness, the increase in poverty leads to a state of social friction in all senses and of course women are in a place of greater vulnerability”.
The worrying statistics are a reflection of the situation in Cuba. With this case and another that has just been confirmed in Corralillo, also in Villa Clara, there have been 40 murders of women so far this year in Cuba.
Through an editorial published by the pro-government newspaper Granma, the regime says that these facts are fabricated, misrepresented or exaggerated, as part of a campaign financed by the State Department to generate mistrust about security in Cuba.
This is the worst year and we are only in the first semester … 40 femicides and last year we registered 36″, Núñez points out that this “is an image that the regime has built for too long, saying that it cares for and protects women , but it is not like that, and there are the figures”.
From Spain, Yanelys is part of a gender observatory that, among other initiatives, quantifies these murders in Cuba. She is a tall order in a country where information is highly controlled.
“There is an important group of murders to which we do not have access. Sometimes we need to access police reports to see if it really was a femicide or not, and of course, since we are independent, they will not even come close to letting us do that.” , alleges Yanelys Núñez, from the Alas Tensas gender observatory.
In the midst of this panorama, activists inside and outside the island are demanding a comprehensive law against gender violence and more protection for potential victims.
“Not having the minimum tools is a major problem. Cuban women have nowhere to turn, there is no specialized hotline,” explains the activist Núñez.
Inside the island, a group of activists designed their own counseling network. They even already have a telephone line, in the absence of an official response.
“Although what we really want is for them to leave power because they have shown that they are incapable of leading Cuban society to a level of satisfaction and security,” says Yanelys Núñez, of the Alas Tensas gender observatory.
