María Emilia Sabigne, the woman who was stabbed by her ex-partner this Thursday in the city of Santiago de Cuba, in the middle of a public road and in the presence of one of her children, died this Friday, as updated on social media by the journalist Yosmany Mayeta.
Sabigne was the mother of three children, one of them in common with Yoel Menéndez Rivera, the man who attacked her in the neck with a knife while the woman was waiting for transportation in the company of her current partner and the child.
The victim, who had just turned 38 years old this past May, had previously filed a complaint with the Police, "but the authorities did nothing about it," says Mayeta Labrada.
After the attack, María Emilia Sabigne had been admitted to the Joaquín Castillo Duany Military Hospital, where her relatives are now "in total despair after receiving the news of the young woman's death," the source pointed out.
Personally, this fact moves me because María Emilia was my friend, and I studied with her cousins. I remember her fondly because she was a charming woman. We always greeted each other and caught up whenever we met," added the communicator.
Yosmany Mayeta demands justice and that the full weight of the law falls on the murderer, who did not think of his own son when attempting against the life of the child's mother.
María Emilia Sabigne - who lived in the Vista Hermosa neighborhood - was stabbed shortly before 7 a.m. on May 23 while she was waiting at "La Rotonda" on Carretera del Morro for a bus to her workplace.
According to the previous account from witnesses, the man attempted to slit María Emilia's throat and managed to wound her in the neck, although the quick intervention of other individuals prevented him from achieving his goal.
A video released by Yosmany Mayeta showed the seconds following the attempted femicide. In the footage -recorded from a distance- the woman on the ground and how she was assisted by several people could be seen.
A source familiar with the family revealed that earlier this week María Emilia - who was an employee of the Repair Company located on Mar Verde Road- had already made a report to the police, apparently due to previous threats she had received from her ex-partner.
At the moment, neither feminist platforms nor official press media have reported on what happened.
Until May 6th, the number of femicides verified by feminist platforms in Cuba so far in 2024 was 18 fatal victims, three attempted femicides, and five cases in need of access to police investigation.
The murder of María Emilia Sabigne would raise the number of fatal victims of gender-based violence on the island to 19 this year.
In 2023, the highest number of femicides in a year was reported, 89 in total, according to the underreporting of cases tracked since 2019 by the High Tension Gender Observatory (OGAT) and the platform Yes, I Believe You in Cuba (YSTCC).
The Cuban regime does not consider the figure of femicide in the current Penal Code, which was approved in May 2022.
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