Femicides in Cuba rise to 50 during 2023

Independent feminist organizations reported that with two new verified femicides the number of these crimes of gender violence rises to 50 so far in 2023.

“With the verified femicides of Deyanira Fontanill Pérez (32 years old, April 19, in Trinidad, at the hands of her ex-partner) and Rafaela Yusmila Ramírez Chacón (45 years old, June 21, Baire, at the hands of her partner), the registry "So far this year it has risen to the painful figure of 50 cases,"reportedon Facebook the YoYes TeCreo platform in Cuba.

Deyanira Fontanill Pérez, 32 years old and mother of three children, was murdered by her ex-partner with whom she no longer wanted to continue in the city of Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus.

The crime occurred on April 19, but it was not until a few days ago that journalist Alberto Arego, at the request of the independent feminist platform YoSíTeCreo in Cuba, was able to confirm the case and make it public on Facebook.

So far in 2023, this organization has also identified 2 attempted femicides and 4 cases in which access to the police investigation is needed to conclude whether it is a crime of this nature.

The last of them isElba Yipsi Pérez Álvarez, which occurred on June 11, in Santiago de Cuba, about which information is still needed to know if it qualifies as feminicide.

Last month, Yo SíTeCreo in Cuba together with the magazine's Gender ObservatoryTense Wings (OGAT), had confirmed thatJune was the month in which the most femicides occurred in Cuba.

In these 30 days, 11 women were murdered, making this period the most critical of the semester.

“It is inadmissible that any official Cuban institution or media echoes this silent pandemic, and above all it is unacceptable that the regime does not adopt urgent measures such as the declaration of the state of emergency due to gender violence,” denounced the OGAT.

In February of this year, more than a dozen civil society organizations launched a third call for the Cuban regime to declare a State of Emergency due to gender violence. Similar alerts were also made in 2021 and 2022 without a response from government authorities.