16-year-old boy suffers assault in Havana: "They put a machete on his neck"

This Wednesday, a 16-year-old Cuban boy suffered aassault with machete in Havana to take away his backpack with the belongings he was carrying.

Adela González Hernández, the boy's grandmother, related in her profileFacebook what happened to his grandson around 2:00 pm, who in broad daylight put a machete to his neck and also hit him in the abdomen with the machete.

"He brought a school backpack with a water bottle and the supply booklet"said the old woman.

According to the old woman, they went to file a complaint at the nearest station, located on Blanquita Street, in the Cerro municipality, and there the police officer who attended to them verbally abused them.

"He told us that the place to make the complaint was Cuarta del Cerro, that Blanquita was not for that," he added.

When the family complained, the agent even told them that if they did not leave he could file a report against the young man's father, calledOsvaldo Navarro Veloz, and his mother too.

"And that the 16-year-old boy, although a minor, could respond before the court. That is,from victims we go to victimizers"he questioned.

Reports of assaults and robberies are becoming more frequent in Cuba, where crime is increasing as the socioeconomic crisis worsens.

Last Friday,Residents in Santiago de Cuba arrested an alleged thief who snatched a cell phone from a teenager who was at the door of his house and they kept him immobilized until the police arrived.

"A phone snatcher has been captured by the people on Calle 6, between D and E, Sueño neighborhood, central neighborhood of the city, when he took a phone from a teenager at the door of his own house," said the independent journalistYosmany Mayeta Labrada.

In the images captured, the anxious state of the thief, very young, with one eye closed, apparently due to a blow received, could be seen. Followers of the reporter identified him as Rufino.

At the end of March, thePolice arrested a thief in Havana who committed 11 assaults with a knife using the same modus operandi: always to women and with their faces covered.

The man was arrested after carrying out two acts of robbery with violence in the Tamarindo popular council of the Diez de Octubre municipality.

In the first case, he threatened his victim on the street with a machete to make her hand over all of her property and also forced her to stimulate her genitals. Just 40 minutes later, he intimidated another woman and took her wallet.

The information published on Facebook did not reveal the name of the thief, but it did publish his photo and it was a young man in his twenties.