The Police and State Security detected 1,644 undeclared calves and 4,463 “disappeared” animals
14ymedio, Havana, 10 August 2024 — The official press spared no detail this Saturday to describe, with the tone of a detective novel and warnings from the Ministry of the Interior, the situation of theft and slaughter of livestock in Santiago de Cuba. After numerous raids, it was discovered that in the province there are 1,644 calves whose births were not declared, 818 illegal sales of cows, 200 unmarked, 719 animals killed without notifying the authorities and 4,463 “disappeared,” whose owners did not report the loss.
The Police have released – literally – their dogs in the pastures of Santiago so that they can find the remains of slaughtered cows, and they have opened files on the farmers who violated the law, to fine them or impose any “other accessory sanction” that corresponds. In total, the authorities say that the province has 110,448 animals, whose owners have their papers in order.
Sierra Maestra interviewed an anonymous farmer – he did not want to reveal his name “for fear of becoming an enemy with some of my acquaintances” – who shed light for the agents on the most common method of Santiago farmers and their complicit “clients”: “You introduce yourself to them with a sack of pesos, and they will let you sacrifice a cow from their herd, making it look like a theft of which they had no knowledge. There are not just a few who are in that business. Here everyone has to take care of their own and is responsible for what they have.”
The police have released their dogs in the pastures of Santiago so that they can find the remains of slaughtered cows
The Ministry of the Interior wasted no time. Invoking article 410.1 of the Criminal Code – on theft – and other similar laws, the agents said that “some farmers want greater speed on the part of the agencies and their effective cooperation to catch those responsible,” and have begun several investigations on their own.
The police computers – says Sierra Maestra – began by registering the “narrat
