14ymedio, Havana, 21 August 2024 — No official media published details about the four trials that were held this week in the municipal court of Songo-La Maya against two people accused of theft, slaughter and trafficking of livestock, and two others for attacking law enforcement officers. The important thing – and the Communist Party newspaper in Santiago de Cuba dedicated a whole article to explain it – was to emphasize the “exemplary” character of the trial, which was attended by a “representation of the people” and Cuban Television´s cameras.
In one of the cases of attack, according to Sierra Maestra, the assaulted person was a police station chief who “went to carry out prophylactic work with a suspect.” The accused was arrested and taken to the police station, where he was given an official warning.
However – the newspaper ambiguously says – something provoked the detainee again, who “once they were inside the office, the accused stood up violently and assaulted the police officer, even tearing the shirt of the military uniform he was wearing.” Several police officers immobilized the man, they add, “to avoid more violent physical aggressions.”
“When we carry out exemplary trials, we enhance communication so that the message we want to convey reaches specific recipients”
Regarding another case linked to illegal slaughter, Sierra Maestra limited itself to saying that the accused had incurred “very repeatedly” in meat trafficking. “It is about a defendant who was caught by the police authorities on the public road in a public transport at the time he was transporting a certain amount of beef,” they explain. There was no information on the other two prosecutions
“When we carry out exemplary trials, we enhance communication so that the message we want to convey reaches certain recipients,” said Geovanis Mestre, one of the judges of the provincial court of Santiago, interviewed by Sierra Maestra. It is essential, he argued, that criminals know that the authorities are targeting illegal cattle slaughtering and that the punishments will be severe.
These trials were not chos
