A group of residents from the Guamuta neighborhood in the town of El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba, captured and restrained a man who was allegedly caught attempting to steal from a house in the area.
According to reports from residents, the individual was tied to a pole with a rope, awaiting the arrival of the authorities. "Even though you see the police officer taking him away, he wasn't captured by them but by us ourselves," one of the witnesses told independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, who shared images of the citizen's arrest on his .
According to collected testimonies, the police took hours to arrive at the scene and limited themselves to transporting the suspect using the same rope with which he had been restrained, without formally handcuffing him, as required by police protocol.
So far, the identity of the detainee has not been revealed. However, community sources indicated that he was carrying an identity card belonging to the Agüero neighborhood in the city of Santiago de Cuba.
An increasingly common practice
This type of community response has become common in various areas of the country due to the perception of authorities' inefficiency in addressing insecurity. In recent weeks, CiberCuba has reported several similar cases, which serves as increasingly clear evidence of the rise in insecurity in Cuba.
In early April, a young man was captured by residents of a neighborhood in Santiago de Cuba after committing theft, in an incident where police response was also notably delayed. Days earlier, neighbors in Havana surprised a thief inside a home and managed to detain him until law enforcement arrived.
Around the same dates, in Manzanillo, another community managed to capture an individual while he was attempting to break into a home. Similarly, in Santiago de Cuba, a crowd beat and handed over another suspected criminal, highlighting the growing frustration among citizens.
These cases reflect a concerning pattern: citizens who, in response to the rise in thefts and the lack of immediate action from the authorities, decide to take matters into their own hands, often putting themselves at risk of violent or more serious situations.
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