Five sentenced to life in prison for femicides in Cuba in 2023

Five Cubans sentenced to life imprisonment to commit female murders in cuba According to official reports, during 2023.

In an appearance at the event we make cubaled by official spokesperson Humberto LopezSupreme Court and Prosecutor’s Office officials assured that the new Cuban Penal Code’s sanctions against perpetrators of crimes of gender violence have been toughened.

During the last year, Two defendants sentenced to 40 years in prison For the murders of women and More than 70% of sanctions ranged between 25 and 30 years of deprivation of liberty.Official sources indicated.

Marisela Sosa RavelloThe Vice President of the Supreme People’s Court explained that the penal code contains “22 criminal statistics that classify crimes in which the sanctioning framework is increased when gender violence or any other form of discrimination is present.”

Cuban government did not include the figure of femicide in the new penal code Approved in May 2022.

Cuban law includes the crime of “murder” and establishes a “punishment of 20 to 30 years in prison.” perpetual lack of freedom or death to a woman who deprives her of her life as a result of sexual violence.

Sosa specified that sentenced to life imprisonment They do not have the right to conditional release, except “in exceptional cases they may request it after serving 30 years”.

Similarly, he pointed out that a “strict policy” was also implemented last year against individuals doing so threats against womenHe assured that it is the crime related to gender violence which is the most committed in the country.

63% of those convicted of this crime were sentenced to prison, of which 57% were deprived of liberty.

alina montesino leeCuba’s Deputy Attorney General assured that, following a complaint by a victim of violence, the Prosecutor’s Office investigates and evaluates whether to apply precautionary measures. “In cases of greater harm, greater physical and mental harm, temporary custody is imposed,” he said.

Montesinos stressed that, in cases of gender violence, women can request protection from the courts so that they can order precautionary measures.

But, according to spokesperson López, what she called a “prevention system” of acts of violence against women in Cuba, “does not always work because the incidents that are really serious continue to occur.”

The Cuban regime opposes the classification of killings of women as femicides, a terminology that is used and accepted internationally by all countries that recognize the existence and combat this scourge. .

However, the ongoing work of the independent feminist platforms Yo Si Te Creo en Cuba and Alas Tenosas, which brings to light attacks on women perpetrated by their former or current partners and demands that the Cuban government provide statistics on these crimes. , has helped. Focus on gender-biased killings and disappearances of women in the country in recent years.

The observatories of both platforms have recorded 220 femicides in Cuba since 2019, 89 of which occurred last year.

So far this year, the underreporting sustained by both groups is accounted for 15 women murdered in Cuba,

Last December, the Cuban government published the official numbers of femicides in the country through October 2023: 117 women were murdered by their partner or former partner.Which is more than the number of violent deaths of women recorded by independent civil society feminist organizations.

The deeply patriarchal Cuban regime continues to insist on avoiding the use of the term ‘femicide’ when talking about sexual crimes against women.

Governor A few days ago, Miguel Diaz-Canel again denied that femicides occur in Cuba.,

“Anti-Cuban subversive platforms are trying to impose the perception that femicide exists in Cuba, a term that indicates the alleged inaction of the state in the face of gender-based violent acts. We can clearly assure here that this is a media construction that is completely different from the Cuban reality,” she said bluntly in her closing speech at the conference of the Cuban Women’s Association.

Díaz-Canel defended the measures adopted by his government to address “killings of women”, which he refused to classify as “femicides”, as he alleges that there were no witnesses to these crimes. There is no “state inaction”.