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An atrocious crime has shocked the community of El Manguito, in Songo La Maya, Santiago de Cuba. Raumelis Victorero Rivera, a farmer and father of two girls, was brutally murdered with machete blows on July 22, just hours after officially registering his newborn daughter.
According to reports from family members to the independent media CubaNet, at least four individuals ambushed him on a rural road in an area known as Corralón.
The attackers savagely targeted his limbs, leaving him critically injured. Although he was immediately assisted by his younger brother, who was only 19, Raumelis bled to death before reaching the La Maya polyclinic.
“They had him framed. They were waiting for him. It was his ex-brother-in-law, with whom he had had problems before”, recounts a cousin of the victim, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “They left him abandoned after almost tearing off his arms and legs”.
The murder has its roots in a personal conflict that escalated into tragedy. Two years ago, Raumelis accidentally injured his ex-brother-in-law during a fight, leaving him with a permanent disability in one arm. Since then, the aggressor vowed to take revenge, a threat he ultimately fulfilled with brutality.
Despite three additional individuals being arrested as suspects, the family fears that the authorities will attempt to downplay the case by placing all the responsibility on the ex-brother-in-law. "If he takes all the blame, the others will go free, and that puts us in danger," the cousin reports.
One of the attackers allegedly threatened the victim's younger brother a day after the crime, prompting family members to initiate legal proceedings for threats. “Everyone involved must pay, even those who just stood by and did nothing. Let them all rot in jail!”, they demand.
According to information from CubaNet, Raumelis was a farmer, livestock breeder, and agriculturalist, well-known in his community. On August 5, he would have turned 35 years old.
It leaves behind a devastated wife, two young daughters, one just a month old, elderly parents, and a family that cannot find solace.
As if the horror were not enough, explicit images of his lifeless body, naked and covered in wounds, were leaked and began to circulate within the community. The photos, taken at the guard post of the clinic where he was declared dead, have caused additional trauma among his loved ones.
“Every time I close my eyes, I see the pictures. I can't get them out of my head. I have never seen such cruelty up close. What they did is unnameable, it was inhuman,” her cousin laments through tears.
The outrage grows as the family fights to keep Raumelis' memory alive and demands justice. "Here in Cuba, it's more serious to kill a cow than to kill a person,” states the woman, reflecting the widespread distrust in the Cuban judicial system and the sense of impunity that pervades the island.
This crime exposes not only the fragility of justice in rural areas but also the silent pain of those who witness their loved ones die without any real consequences, in a Cuba troubled by violence, impunity, and fear.
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