Cuban mother killer in Bayamo appeals his sentence to the Supreme Court.

The man who murdered his ex-wife and mother of his two children, Yubisleydis Gamboa, in October 2023 in the city of Bayamo, Granma, appealed to the Supreme Court against the 30-year sentence he received for the feminicide, precisely on the date when his victim would have turned 35 years old.

"Today, September 12, my dear sister would have turned 35 years old. Unfortunately, we could not celebrate this day together, due to a born criminal who today appealed to the Supreme Court for a review of his 30-year sentence," wrote Yoelkis Gamboa, the victim's brother, on social media this Thursday.

"Don't worry, my little sister, may God give you light and eternal rest R.I.P," Gamboa expressed in a message commemorating the anniversary of the young woman.

Yubisleydis, who was a nurse at the children's hospital in Bayamo, was stabbed in broad daylight by her ex-partner, Yunier Álvarez García, on Saturday, October 21, 2023, according to the testimony of a family member after the crime occurred.

The young woman left behind two small children: a four-year-old girl and a boy who turned eight two days after his mother was taken from them.

The femicide of Yubisleydis was reported by her cousin Eriberto Gamboa Gamboa. In a series of posts on Facebook, the man recounted the family tragedy that triggered Álvarez's ruthless action, who did not care about "taking the life of the mother of his two youngest children."

"What rights does anyone have to take the life of another? A bad husband and a bad father, a bad son. What can society expect from such a monster?" he questioned. "What human being, being the father of these two babies, can blind the life of his children, leaving them to suffer the loss of their mother as they are making their children do?"

Eriberto lamented in his writings that children will have to grow up "like a rudderless ship adrift (...), without their mother's love, because their father decided to take her life at only 34 years old, she, my dear little cousin, beautiful young woman, nurse by profession, your light has now gone out, my girl."

The cousin of the deceased was also the one who identified the femicide, who resided in the town of Jabaquito, in Bayamo, and additionally, published a photo of his face.

"If there is true human justice and divine justice, may that wicked and soulless man pay for such an abominable crime," he implored. "May the death penalty be applied to this human monstrosity."

Eriberto also advocated for “justice for all the victims like her who have been targets of physical abuse and abhorrent crimes [...] Justice for all women at the hands of criminal, ruthless murderers and human debris.”

The murder of Yubisleydis Gamboa was one of the 89 femicides recorded in 2023 by independent Cuban platforms.

According to the underreporting by the gender violence observatories YoSíTeCreo in Cuba and Alas Tensas, so far in 2024, there have been another 35 femicides in Cuba, in addition to three attempts. Likewise, six possible cases remain unresolved, pending access to the police investigation.

At the end of August, the official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) admitted that more than 16,000 women and girls, from 9,579 families, live in situations of violence.

Days earlier, the organization had acknowledged an increase in femicides - although it refuses to use that term and uses the term femicide instead - due to the pandemic.

The FMC stated that it is working with the Attorney General's Office to implement an "interoperable administrative registry" that will allow for tracking, monitoring, and real-time information on gender-based violence.