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The Gender Observatory Alas Tensas (OGAT) confirmed this Monday the identity of the woman found dead in the early hours of June 4 in the park at the corner of 23rd Street and Paseo Avenue, in El Vedado, in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.
It is about Yohanka Acosta Rodríguez, known as "Maconcha," who was presumably murdered by her ex-partner.
The individual -whose identity has not been disclosed- is now in police custody.
The case had generated consternation in El Vedado since the very day of the discovery, but the identity of the victim was not publicly confirmed until now, when the OGAT completed its verifications based on friends, neighbors, and direct sources linked to the case.
A mother of two children
Yohanka -whose age was not specified in the official note- leaves behind two children: an adult son and a minor daughter. The feminist organization extended its condolences to the children, family, and the community of neighbors who mourn the victim, and requested the support of the public to gather more information about the case.
Four stab wounds and death from blood loss
According to historian and neighborhood resident Julio César González Pagés, who was one of the first to report the crime on social media, Yohanka lived on 27th Street in the same neighborhood and was stabbed four times.
"The neighborhood has been in shock since yesterday following the femicide of a neighbor from 27th Street, who was found dead after suffering four stab wounds. The murder, resulting from exsanguination, occurred early in the morning at the central park at the corner of 23rd Street and Avenida Paseo," the academic wrote on Facebook.
Neighbors cited by González Pagés indicated that the alleged assailant had reportedly attempted to take his own life the day before the crime.
The 31st femicide so far in 2026 in Cuba
, confirmed the case to Martí Noticias.
The crime of Yohanka raises the total to 31 confirmed femicides by the OGAT in Cuba so far in 2026, according to the organization's count up to this June 8.
"On the same date in 2025, the number of femicides was half. Therefore, the increase is quite significant.", warned Ileana Álvarez, director of OGAT.
The case arises days after the femicide of Lisney Cárdenas Bruzón, 26 years old, which occurred on June 3 in La Tomatera, Camagüey. She suffered for more than eight hours after allegedly being attacked by her husband, with medical assistance delayed due to power outages and the isolation of the rural community where she lived.
Last Thursday, the OGAT had confirmed three more femicides that occurred on June 2: those of Adrianelys Nieves Castillo (24 years old, Camagüey), Estefany García (29, Havana), and Yanet Sánchez Espino (48, El Vedado).
A pattern that repeats and a state that does not act
The case of Yohanka fits the dominant profile documented by the OGAT in 2026: 83.3% of femicides are committed by a partner or ex-partner, 64.6% are carried out with a bladed weapon, and 62.5% occur in the victim's immediate environment.
Since its establishment in 2019, the OGAT has documented 345 femicides in Cuba. Of these, 48 were recorded in 2025.
The Cuban Penal Code, in effect since November 2022, does not classify femicide as an independent crime.
Cuba lacks a comprehensive law on gender-based violence, and there are no shelters for at-risk women or effective protection protocols.
"The rise in femicides is alarming. Everything is happening in a context of crisis and lack of protection for women in Cuba, and in a situation that is very, very dramatic for the entire Cuban population," concluded Ileana Álvarez.
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