Related videos:
The historian and Doctor of Sciences, Julio César González Pagés, reported this Wednesday on Facebook that he was assaulted by two minors in Havana while returning from grocery shopping, in a testimony that became a public denunciation of the insecurity faced by elderly individuals in Cuba.
According to the account given by the academic himself, one of the minors asked him for money while the other tried to snatch his bag from behind.
González Pagés defended himself by hitting the second one with the bag over his head, after which the young man fled, shouting, "This old man is crazy."
"It is true, to live in Cuba today you have to be crazy," wrote the professor and founder of the Ibero-American and African Network of Masculinities.
The incident was not isolated. At the same corner where González Pagés was assaulted, another woman was robbed by two different thieves, who were captured by neighbors in the area.
"The people of the neighborhood are constantly mobilized against the thieves," he noted.
"Older adults are now the target of thefts and assaults," the academic warned, pointing to a pattern that is recurring in various provinces of the country.
González directly linked the increase in youth crime to two structural factors: the abrupt end of the school year and widespread economic instability.
"The abrupt ending of the school year and the precariousness in which we live will continue to feed the ranks of child and youth thieves," he wrote.
The figures support their alarm. The Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory recorded 2,833 verified crimes in 2025, a 115% increase compared to 2024, with thefts being the most common crime: 1,536 cases. In just the first half of that year, there were 99 reported assaults and attacks.
The provinces most affected were Matanzas, Granma, Havana, and Santiago de Cuba.
Older adults have been recurring victims of this wave of crime. An 88-year-old woman was found beaten after being robbed in Havana and stripped of her wallet.
In Camagüey, an 83-year-old woman was assaulted during a blackout. In Holguín, two men were arrested for attacking an elderly man with a brick to steal his electric motorcycle.
This is not the first time González Pagés has tried to draw attention to youth violence in Cuba.
In April 2025, Cubavisión rejected his proposals for documentary series on youth violence, drugs, and inequality —including "The Age of Rage" and "Adolescence"— arguing that they were not of "interest."
The academic concluded his publication with a personal note: he announced his intention to emigrate to Morocco next year, joining the growing wave of Cubans leaving the island due to the deterioration of living conditions.
«Seré un dálmata antes de irme para Marruecos el año próximo», escribió, en referencia a las manchas de vitíligo que marcan sus manos.
Filed under: