EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 9, 2024 — Last year Cuba tripled the number of people convicted of femicides compared to the 2022 record, going from 18 to 61 rulings, according to official data released this Friday.
The president of the country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, announced the 2023 figure at the closing of the Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women, an official social organization of the Communist Party of Cuba. Díaz-Canel also stated that 93% of the sentences were for more than 20 years in prison, and in five cases the penalty was life imprisonment.
The Cuban Government does not offer updated statistics on femicides. For their part, the independent feminist platforms Yo Sí Te Creo and Alas Tensas reported, in their annual dossier also presented this Friday, a total of 89 femicides, more than double those recorded the previous year.
Of these, three cases were not considered femicides by this newspaper: that of a girl mistreated by her stepfather and her own mother; an assault on the street; and a woman killed by “gynecolo-obstetric violence.” On the other hand, 14ymedio did consider the death of Miriam Isern Mompié, not included by independent platforms, among its list of femicides.
“We can categorically state here that this is a media construction completely unrelated to Cuban reality,” Díaz-Canel said.
Despite recognizing that cases of gender violence on the Island “appear with an unfortunate