The alleged perpetrators of a crime that shocked the population of Camagüey in February of last year were charged, and the prosecution requested sentences of 30 years in prison and life imprisonment for the murder of a man to steal his electric tricycle.
As a result of the joint work of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) forces, two individuals aged 23 and 31 were clarified and detained. The report from the National Television News (NTV) did not reveal the identity of the victim or that of the alleged killers, nor did it disclose the date when the events occurred.
Based on the description of the crime provided by the official media, it is presumed to be the murder of Yudel López Álvarez, a 41-year-old Cuban who was killed in February 2023 and then dismembered to steal his electric tricycle in the province of Camagüey.
Two individuals decided to obtain economic benefits illicitly by stealing a motor vehicle to sell it and make substantial profits. In order to carry out their plan, both accused contacted the victim at the agricultural market in Hatibonico," the report explained.
López Álvarez, driver of a blue electric tricycle, Minerva brand, belonging to the Provincial Insurance Company, agreed to transport the suspects to their home in exchange for a payment for his services. According to the initial version offered by a close relative to the independent media outlet Diario de Cuba, López Álvarez was intercepted by two men while leaving his workplace on the tricycle, and they stabbed him until he lost strength.
Then, according to the relative, the victim was dismembered and their remains thrown into a river inside a sack with heavy objects. This version was confirmed this Monday by the official media, which specified that the body of López Álvarez was thrown at the location known as "Puente Estrecho, located at kilometer 4 of the Vertientes road, Isabel Hortensia village, Camagüey municipality."
According to the report from the official media outlet, during the investigative process, two individuals were identified selling a tricycle with similar characteristics to those described in the crime. According to the version provided by the family to the aforementioned independent media outlet, the relatives posted a photo of the missing person on social media, in which López Álvarez appeared alongside his electric tricycle.
"Then a person from the Vertientes municipality commented that they were offered that vehicle for sale, and we reported it to the Vertientes Police, who set up an operation and captured the main suspects, who confessed to the modus operandi," the family member explained to Diario de Cuba.
This version offered 16 months ago does not match the one given by Lieutenant Colonel Yosbel Miranda Infante, head of the Provincial Criminal Investigation Unit, who explained to NTV that the identification of the suspects was achieved following the "disappearance" report of López Álvarez made by his family members.
According to the MININT official, the report described the vehicle that the victim was driving at the time of their disappearance, which "coincided" with the one two individuals were trying to sell in the municipality of Vertientes.
The official version did not mention the family's initiative to publish on social media, through which a person "commented that the vehicle was offered to them for sale," which led the relatives to report "to the Vertientes Police" about that lead.
The facts were recently judged in the First Criminal Chamber of the Popular Provincial Court of Camagüey (Case 125/2023) and constitute a murder offense, for which the Prosecution requested penalties of perpetual deprivation of liberty and 30 years of deprivation of liberty for the detainees, who are in provisional detention.
The NTV report featured reconstructed images of the "investigation process," which they deemed successful due to the speed (36 hours) with which they managed to make the arrests of the suspects.
In line with the information published recently by the official press of the Cuban regime, which aims to improve the image of inefficiency of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), the report recreated the entire alleged police operation that led to the identification and arrest of the suspects. And it did not mention at any time that, according to the initial version provided by the family, these actions were possible after the complaint made by the victim's family on social media.
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