Suspect arrested for crime in Cárdenas, Matanzas, for car and horse theft

Yudier Castellano was arrested as a suspect in the crime involving a young worker in Camarioca, a locality in the municipality of Cárdenas, province of Matanzas, as announced by the official profile “Con Todos La Victoria” in recent days.

The victim went out to work as usual, transporting passengers with her horse-drawn carriage, and never returned.

The next day, his body was found lifeless on the embankment known as "Tierras Negras," with a stab wound in his back.

Alongside the corpse, the horse and the carriage had vanished, suggesting that the motive for the crime was the theft of the vehicle.

The authorities acted quickly and managed to identify the culprit: during the search of Castellano's home, they found the stolen animal-drawn cart, key evidence that confirmed his involvement in the incident.

The official publication described the case as "a brutal crime that clearly demonstrates how ambition can twist a life in an instant," and pointed out that the arrested individual "despite his coldness, did not anticipate the effectiveness of the authorities."

The case was presented by the authorities as closed, with the suspect placed at the disposal of the Justice system for sentencing.

Camarioca is a coastal locality that has been part of the municipality of Cárdenas since 2010, located about 4.5 kilometers west of the city of Cárdenas, at the mouth of the river of the same name.

Crime occurs in a context of growing violence in Cuba during 2026, where independent organizations have documented at least 19 confirmed femicides by the end of April, although the regime does not publish official crime statistics.

Animal-drawn vehicles represent a valuable asset for their owners in present-day Cuba, where the deep economic crisis caused by more than six decades of communist dictatorship has turned these vehicles into one of the main sources of livelihood for many families, especially in rural and semi-rural areas.

That same precariousness makes them frequent targets of theft, as was tragically illustrated in this case in Matanzas, a province affected by violence.