Caught on camera attempt to evict in Villa Clara

A Cuban mother with two small children recorded the moment when agents of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) accompanied the alleged owners of the home she had occupied to proceed with her eviction.

The video recorded by the mother occupying the house showed the discussion that took place with the alleged owners who demanded that she leave the house, as well as the subsequent arrival of two patrol cars from the PNR at the scene.

The incident was reported on Facebook by a user identified as Marvelis González and is said to have occurred on Tuesday, September 17. Apparently, the mother had nowhere to live and for that reason had occupied an empty house.

"Today, September 17, 2024, a desperate woman named Bárbara Rodríguez Bonachea, with a child in her arms, is evicted on Libertadores Street No. 112, between Tristá and San Cristóbal streets, Raúl Sancho neighborhood (El Condado), municipality of Santa Clara, Villa Clara province," reported the internet user.

According to the publication by González, later deleted from the social network, Rodríguez Bonachea would have occupied the house in a gesture of desperation, “because he has nowhere to live with his two children.”

"The police have been at the scene and have done nothing [to help her]. They only want the lady to go out with the children into the street, and all the people who are there [the neighbors] are telling her to come out," González stated, criticizing the police's actions and the neighbors' attitude for being unsupportive.

Recorded from inside the house, the video showed the barricade put up behind the front door by the mother, who placed a table to hinder the entry of the claimants. At the same time, she carried her youngest child in her arms, using him as a human shield to prevent any violent action from the police and alleged owners.

Apparently, according to what was recorded in the audio of the recording, the young man who was urging her to leave the house is the son of the owner. According to the mother occupying the house, the young man did not live in the house and was living with his mother. Since the house was uninhabited, the woman considered that she could occupy it, given her situation of being homeless with young children in her care.

The incident was reported by González as an "eviction." "Look at what happens in Cuba, where they supposedly say there is no eviction. Look at that woman hitting the window until she breaks it and telling that mother with her two children to go out into the street," said the internet user who supported the alleged right of the mother to occupy a home.

His two posts were deleted from Facebook for reasons that are unknown. At the time of writing this note, the situation of Rodríguez Bonachea and his two small children is also unknown, as well as the actions of the authorities in this case (beyond sending the police) and the final outcome of the dispute.

In 2023, the Cuban regime tightened the legal tools for the eviction of individuals who illegally occupy state housing or properties, a phenomenon that has increased amid the housing crisis on the island and the migratory exodus.

The People's Supreme Court published in the Official Gazette Opinion 471 of 2023, which contains the "Instructions on how to proceed in the case of the crime of Usurpation under Article 421 of the Penal Code."

However, the increase in poverty and social exclusion in Cuba, combined with the largest migratory exodus in its history, has resulted in a rise in the number of occupied homes and vacant premises on the Island, sometimes belonging to individuals, but in many other cases belonging to the State.

At the end of July, a group made up of several large families, 19 children, a bedridden person, and a pregnant young woman faced an attempted eviction from the old Ice Factory in Santiago de Cuba, which they had occupied since last May due to severe housing problems.

Independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada reported on Facebook that the group of people occupied the old building located on Barracones Street, which had been used as a garbage dump, because they were desperate due to the "juggling and government lies," after years of waiting for a housing solution.

Days earlier, a Cuban reported the eviction of his octogenarian grandmother from her home in Bayamo, Granma, and condemned the total inaction of the National Police (PNR), which refused to receive his complaint, stating that his grandmother had been a victim of scammers disguised as police and housing authorities.

Libia Sablon Aguilera, 83 years old, had a hip fracture at the time of the eviction and suffered a cerebral ischemia due to the violent and distressing situation she found herself in.

In May, a young Cuban couple, along with three sick children, reported living in precarious conditions without receiving government assistance, which was why they had occupied a house about which they did not provide details.

"We are in a housing situation because we have nowhere to go, we don't have a home," emphasized the young father, while the mother reported that the Cuban authorities did not help mothers with children and threatened to evict them.