A resident of the area told DLA that the alleged attacker “forcibly took her to his house and stabbed her in a brutal manner. When the neighbors cornered him, he tried to commit suicide. But he was able to be arrested by the police, who arrived hours later.” According to the independent feminist platform Observatorio de Alas Tensa (OGAT), based in Madrid, the sexist homicide of Castillo Sacre was the 52nd recorded in Cuba in 2026. But on October 25, the number of Cuban women murdered on the Island had already increased to 60.
What worries Edelmira, 34 years old, resident in San Cristóbal is “that the guy – the alleged murderer – had served a sentence in 2010 for killing the mother of his children and at five years old he was transferred to a work camp where they gave him passes on the weekends. In 2019 he was already on the streets doing misdeeds. The laws in Cuba are incredible, they punish you with 30 years for killing a cow, 20 years for shouting freedom or Díaz-Canel singao and for murdering a human being they treat you with kid gloves.”
OGAT has reiterated its concern about the increase in sexist crimes so far in 2026 and has insisted on the Cuban dictatorship to “publish systematic official statistics, classify feminicide, activate protection protocols, enable shelters for women at risk and guarantee effective emergency lines.” Castroism publicly declares zero tolerance against sexist violence.
But activists and dissidents denounce the lack of concrete actions, both in prevention and in care and support for victims. A former social worker recognizes the “apathy and lack of rigor of the authorities to investigate femicides, murders and other crimes when the accusation comes from people that the government labels as ‘counterrevolutionaries’. I can confirm that almost always the number of murders or robberies with violence are higher than those that appear in independent media and on social networks.”
“The authorities are silent in response. They consider that it is part of a script of ‘Yankee imperialism and its lackeys’ to discredit the government. They opt for inaction and impunity. I remember the case of the troubadour Fernando Bécquer in 2022. The public accusation began with the report Five complaints against Fernando Bécquerpublished on December 8, 2021 in El Estornudo by the independent journalist Mario Luis Valle.”
“Nothing happened because Bécquer was a ‘revolutionary’. He was denounced by more than 30 women, including some foreigners and the writer Elaine Vilar Madruga. Bécquer was charged and put on trial for having abused at least six women, but the process was staged to calm public opinion and social networks, as the case had even alarmed international institutions. A few months after being detained he was cleaning the streets.”
“Another case occurred in the province of Granma (800 kilometers southeast of Havana). A retired MININT officer and member of the communist party was accused of pedophilia and denounced by the independent press. There was sufficient evidence. But the authorities did not prosecute him because they considered that it was a campaign orchestrated by the enemy,” says the former social worker.
A DTI instructor asserts that “to mitigate what the government believes is a media war against Cuba, the statistics of murders, robberies, cattle slaughter, motorcycle thefts and other crimes are disguised. But the reality is unquestionable. The violence has escalated so much, at least in the municipalities of Diez de Octubre, Arroyo Naranjo, San Miguel del Padrón, Guanabacoa and Regla, which are the ones I attend to, that the number of cases “We are overwhelmed by the lack of instructors and technology that allows us to do effective work.”
“A large part of the surveillance camera circuit in Havana is broken or does not work due to extensive blackouts. The material dedicated to collecting fingerprints and the canine technique is reserved for cases that the leadership considers important. The theft of a cell phone on public roads, assaults to remove a gold chain or minor thefts are often not even investigated. The victim files a complaint, but the criminal is almost never arrested,” says the instructor.
Yasniel, owner of a tricycle that he used as a collective taxi, comments that three weeks ago, around four in the afternoon, “two passengers offered me a trip to the airport and offered me a good sum of money. They asked me to go to their house to pick up the suitcases. They set a trap for me. Together with two other guys they took out a gun and several machetes and took my motorcycle. All of this happened in the Córdova Park in La Víbora. I made the complaint out of pleasure. Despite identifying one of the criminals, the police have not caught anyone.”
A new Public Insecurity report from the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit (OCAC), a project sponsored by the Cuba Siglo 21 platform, reveals that the lethality of crime on the Island has been documented and almost doubled in one year. According to this research, in the first half of 2026, Cuba registered 43% more murders than in the same period last year. In 2025, 5.23 deaths were recorded for every one hundred reported crimes, but in 2026 the figure reaches 10.35, which implies an increase of 97.9%.
The crime map has changed. In 2026, the province of Matanzas displaces Havana for the first time in number of murders (18) and also leads the violent assaults (21).
The DTI instructor clarifies that in cases of thefts and robberies in homes, “many times people do not report it. They prefer to investigate on their own or pay people to recover what was stolen. They take justice into their own hands. In Havana alone, at least fourteen thieves have been captured by neighbors, who usually beat them before handing them over to the police. The population no longer trusts the law enforcement forces.”
Antonio, a private taxi driver, is very alarmed by the perceived citizen insecurity in Cuba. “After seven at night I don’t usually work. Criminal gangs that steal your car or motorcycle are in fashion. And they never catch anyone. I suspect they do it in combination with the police.”
Elizabeth, a resident of Víbora Park, assures that “when night falls you cannot go out on the street unless you go in a group. In this area, gangs steal the cable of an air conditioner as well as assault a person to take anything away from them. Young people who are drunk or high on the ‘chemical’ commit any misdeed. And the police patrol passes by and they don’t even ask for their identification card.”
Guillermo, a resident of Calabazar, south of the capital, recommends that “if you arrive at your house at dawn and feel threatened, start shouting Down with the Dictatorship or Homeland and Life. This way you scare away the criminals and a patrol arrives immediately. When you call about a robbery they never come. But if it is a protest against the government, they appear within five minutes.”
When night falls on the ranch of Rufino, 59 years old, owner of a small farm in the Mayabeque province, southwest of Havana, he and his son, next to the room where they sleep, keep the three cows they own. “In recent years, two cattle have been butchered, an ox, several pigs and chickens have been stolen. Also a turbine, tractor tires and two fuel drums. Not to mention that they steal a part of my garlic, onion and avocado harvest every now and then when the season arrives.”
“It is relentless harassment. Every night I have to stand guard with my son. If I am careless, they will loot my farm. I am tired of making complaints to the police. They never catch anyone. The first suspects are the owners, because the police consider that they are self-thefts so as not to deliver what was agreed upon with Acopio or stables that we make with the cow slaughterers to sell the meat on the black market and share the profits,” says the farmer.
Daniel, owner of a private business, believes that “Díaz-Canel is unpresentable. He has no compassion. He beats the unarmed people and punishes those who protest against his government with many years. But to combat the scourge of drugs and crime, permissiveness is absolute. He has not done any good management in the seven years of his mandate.”
Andrés, a resident of the El Sevillano neighborhood, thinks that “the government is using crime and violence as a tool to frighten citizens. And drugs are not severely prosecuted to keep the youth alienated. Since we do not have democracy, Cuba would need presidents like Bukele, who rigorously combat crime. Díaz-Canel is not effective even as a dictator.”
