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Cuba has recorded 30 femicides so far in 2026, as confirmed this Saturday by the Gender Observatory of Alas Tensas (OGAT), following the death of Lisney Cárdenas Bruzón, 26 years old, which occurred in the early morning of June 4 in La Tomatera, municipality of Florida, Camagüey.
Lisney had been brutally attacked on the afternoon of June 3, allegedly by her husband, Jorge Vázquez Hernández, from whom she was in the process of separating. According to OGAT's verifications based on witness testimonies, neighbors, and direct sources, the attacker called her to talk and then assaulted her in her own home. The young woman fought for her life for more than eight hours.
The testimonies collected by the observatory indicate that Lisney "repeatedly expressed her desire to live for her children." The crime leaves a girl of about eight years old and a boy of about three years old orphaned of their mother, the latter having witnessed the attack.
The case also highlights the structural vulnerability of rural communities in Cuba. Power outages disrupted communications in La Tomatera, and someone had to travel by motorcycle to Florida to request help. The local clinic had been without a permanent family doctor for over a year, and the neighbors tried to manage Lisney's wounds with the resources available while waiting for an ambulance that took several hours to arrive.
This femicide occurred just a day after OGAT confirmed three new crimes on June 5: those of Adrianelys Nieves Castillo, Estefany García, and Yanet Sánchez Espino, which raised the count to 29 before Lisney's case brought it to 30.
The figure of 30 femicides as of June 6 nearly doubles the 16 verified by the same date in 2025, which OGAT itself describes as "a concerning increase in femicidal violence in the country."
In 2025, the OGAT and Yo Sí Te Creo observatories in Cuba recorded 48 confirmed femicides throughout the year, a figure that is already considered an underreporting due to the lack of official statistics.
The patterns documented in 2026 show that 83.3% of femicides are committed by current or former partners, 62.5% occur in the victim's home, and 64.6% are carried out using knives or other sharp instruments.
Cuba does not classify femicide as an independent crime in its Penal Code, lacks a comprehensive law on gender violence, has no shelters for victims, and does not publish official statistics on these crimes, which forces independent organizations like OGAT to document each case.
Amnesty International warned in November 2025 that the lack of appropriate legislation and the subordination of the judiciary to the regime perpetuate impunity.
At the close of this report, OGAT also counts 19 attempted femicides and one male murder due to gender motives in Cuba during 2026. From 2019 to October 2025, both observatories documented 300 femicides on the island, a figure that the current pace of 2026 threatens to surpass in record time.
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