The Cuban activistShayra Gonzalez Pernia wasassaulted by a criminal armed with a knife while walking through the streets of Central Havana, as reported in a direct message on his social networks.
“About three days ago I was assaulted in Central Havana. It was about ten thirty at night and I came from seeing my mother and my sister. I went down Jovellar Street, that street in Central Havana that goes out to Maceo Park (...) and a boy comes, a mulatico there, young, 23 years old, dressed in white, a cap, a very wide sleeveless shirt... and he takes out a knife , who was a huge killer, and he told me 'give it all to me,'” the victim said.
Fearful, González Pernía handed him her wallet with all the belongings she had on her, including money, cell phone and even the keys to the house. Even so, the thief snatched some bracelets that she was wearing.
“Gentlemen, it was half past ten at night and not a soul passed by. I was left [not knowing what to do]. First time I have been assaulted in my life, as streetwise as I have been. In San Lázaro, gentlemen, there was no one like never before,” said the young woman.
Finally, González Pernía saw two police officers passing by on motorbikes and stopped them to tell them what happened and report the facts. However,The police responded that “we are not here for that.”.
“I tell him, oh, good night, officer, look, I just got mugged. And the boy is dressed in white. And look, I saw him take Espada [street] down, straight to the Malecón. What did the police tell me? 'Oh, no, my love, we are not up to that,'” he said.
Trans activist for the rights of the LGTBI collective, González Pernía highlighted the increase in violence and crime in Cuba, and attested that the streets of the capital are deserted at night and the fear that runs through the population in the face of such a situation.
“Havana is not the Havana of before. There is panic in Havana. They are attacking you over a telephone, they stab you, they leave you dead. For the people who have motorbikes, they are laying some wires, some cables, in the middle of the streets. When you pass, two of them knock you down and... Gentlemen, there is panic in the street. At nine at night you don't see anyone,” he said.
Added to this is the fear of the people of theLGTBI+ collective to report to the police, who generally react with displays of transphobia and homophobia, leaving them unprotected and marginalized. According to the activist, in the area where she was assaulted there is a gay bar and the criminals assault its clients with impunity, without any police intervention despite the several complaints made.
“Always try to go with another person, because almost always these assailants are looking to see who to assault and when they come across a person they choose them as the target of the assault.
“The city is like a ghost; no one. There is panic in Havana. For the people who left Cuba some time ago and with whom we walked through Havana and it was divine: right now it is no longer like that. Right now there is horrible crime, God level,” the young woman advised.
In mid-January 2022,González Pernía was deported to Cuba after being stranded for several days at the airport in Istanbul, the capital of Türkiye.
The news came out after friends sent it to the editorial office ofCyberCubaa video that González Pernía made at the time she was going to be deported to Cuba by the Turkish immigration authorities.
At that time, a publication on social networks noted that anyone who “has experienced firsthand the persecution of a murderous government knows the danger that this woman runs when she returns to Cuba. “None of us have left Cuba because we wanted to, we have left because of fear, because of the bad life, because of the political repression that we face for being activists and LGBTI.”
González Pernía lived in Moscow for three months; He then traveled to Egypt, where he stayed for a month, bought a ticket to Serbia and during the transfer from Istanbul he realized that he could not continue his journey.
"I ran away [from Cuba] because after being in the 11J march, the harassment against me was constant. Lieutenant Tania, in Zanja, made my life miserable. I ran away through Moscow," the young woman explained on her social networks. who presents himself as an activist for LGBTI rights.
González Pernía (Manzanillo, 1986)was interviewed byCyberCubain March 2023 and explained that, once she returned to Cuba, she dedicated herself to Internet prostitution as a means of living ("we ask for recharges in exchange for photos or videos"), without giving up fighting to make Cuba more habitable; based on values of freedom, prosperity, tolerance, justice and mutual respect.
The increase in crime and violence in Cuba has trans people among the most vulnerable groups, carrying the social stigma of a markedly patriarchal society, where transsexuals are despised and even abused by the police.
In November 2023,a transsexual woman was admitted in serious condition in a hospital in Matanzas after being attacked in various parts of the body with a knife in the city of Cárdenas.
Roxana Suarez, 22 years old, was found unconscious on Real de Cárdenas Street, the trans activist reportedMel Herrera in the independent environmentCubanet.
The young woman had several cuts to her head, stab wounds and cuts to her neck, face and other parts of her body. She was transferred to the Faustino Pérez hospital in Matanzas with several skull fractures.
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