Police brutality claims the life of a young man in Santiago de Cuba

A 30-year-old young man reportedly died in Santiago de Cuba after a beating by a police officer from that town last Sunday.

The victim, identified as Sergio Pozo Hernandez, was with his family in the Caleton beach, in Santiago de Cuba, when the incident occurred, his girlfriend Claudia Esther Ramírez denounced in statements to the activist Eliecer Avila.

He said that that day he was on the beach with some friends and family, when a robbery occurred and to the place the police were mobilized to catch the thief, who was immediately arrested.

However, at that moment Pozo Hernández passed by on his motorcycle "by where the patrol car was and the officer gave him a signal to stop, but my boyfriend He did not have a driving license and tries to continue".

The woman explains that "The officer's reaction was to throw a chair at him with the engine running. and he, in a reflex act of avoiding the object, turned onto the opposite path" along which a truck was coming and hit him.

"Lying on the ground, the police officer tells the truck driver to continue and The police officer begins to hit Sergio on the ground. and [the other officers] did absolutely nothing to help him. The same people who were with him in the campsite were eyewitnesses of what happened, some recorded videos and photos of what happened., (videos that do not appear) and upon seeing such a barbaric act they began to throw stones at the patrol car," he said.

He young man was transferred to the Military Hospital of Santiago de Cuba, but he had arrived in a very serious condition, "with multiple fractures, head trauma, hemopericardium, and intra-abdominal hemorrhage," and finally died at 09:00 p.m..

Ramírez affirms that currently there are 24 people detained at the Micro 9 station for trying to stop the beating of the patrolman, who is now missing.

After the death of Pozo Hernández "two patrol cars, two police cars, and a truck with Black Berets arrived at the hospital" to intimidate the family, he said.

Police brutality has claimed several lives in Cuba in recent years, while the regime continues to justify the actions of its soldiers. In January, the violent arrest of a young man who was walking with a box on a street in Havana emerged.

The incident occurred on January 2 and was caught on video that was published on Twitter by the user Javi and El Koso: "In 2023, the repression has started in style," they said.

In July 2022, a police officer executed the young man from 17 years Zinedine Zidane Batista, and after reporting the incident, the victim's father, Yosvani Batista, was prosecuted and faced a prosecutor's request for six years in prison after his son's murderer accused him of carrying weapons, attack and disobedience.