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This March 15 marks one year since the death of Jorgito, a 50-year-old man who was murdered in 2024 in Aguacate, a rural community in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, shortly after he discovered a marijuana farm in the middle of the woods.
Jorge Luis Heredia Cala (April 27, 1973 - March 15, 2024) was murdered around eight in the evening, just before celebrating his 51st birthday. Yacel Segura, alias Tatico, killed him in an alley in Aguacate and shortly thereafter confessed the crime to the police. He spent five months in pretrial detention and has been free since then. In fact, a year after committing the crime, there is still no trial date.
Yacel Segura had learned shortly before Jorgito's death that he had discovered a marijuana farm in the vicinity of Aguacate. In the town, it is rumored that this was the reason for the crime. Jorgito mentioned it, and a few days later, he was killed. There have been no reports of the police searching for the marijuana farm or apprehending its owners.
Tatico convinced the Prosecutor's Office by saying that the alley where Jorgito died was dark and that he had thrown a stone to kill an owl, but by accident, he ended up killing Jorgito.
However, Jorgito did not die from a stone but rather from several blunt force impacts to the head. The family sent a photo of the deceased to CiberCuba, and since it was highly sensitive material, this portal decided not to publish it. He had bruises on one eye, the nose, and the skull. The autopsy determined that he died due to multiple blows from a specific object.
In the village, everyone knows that Tatico did not act alone but was accompanied by another figure from Aguacate who calls himself "Hombre." They also know that Tatico is the son-in-law of a local businessman, Julio A. Cuevas Pacheco, who owns large tracts of land in the vicinity of Aguacate. No one wanted to testify against him to the police for fear of reprisals. No one wants to share the same fate as Jorgito.
In fact, a neighbor from the village, Ana María Iglesias Cañete, ran out shouting in the middle of the street that Jorgito had been killed in the alley, but what she saw did not help keep Tatico in jail.
When Jorge Luis Heredia discovered the marijuana farm, he was unsure whether what he was looking at was cannabis, so he took a sample to Aguacate to verify it. In front of several witnesses, he told Tatico that he knew what they had planted in the hills and asked for compensation to keep quiet. Shortly afterward, he was found dead, allegedly accidentally, according to the Cuban Prosecutor's Office, which claims to have declared war on drugs throughout the country.
It so happened that Aguacate recorded three murders within a span of twelve months, including that of Jorgito. A mother was also killed by her ex-partner and a 15-year-old girl was strangled by a rapist. In light of the Police's inaction, a relative of Jorgito protested, and instead of imprisoning Tatico, they took this cousin of Jorgito into custody, who was released from jail thanks to the media attention his case received. They requested a bail of 100,000 pesos, which ultimately turned into a fine of one thousand pesos.
A year after that crime, there is neither a trial in sight, nor is anyone in prison, and the marijuana plantation has not been dismantled. The only clear thing in this case is that Jorge Luis Heredia Cala is dead and that his family has had to relocate from the town out of fear of meeting the same fate.
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