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The Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (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 Avenue Paseo, in El Vedado, in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.
This is about Yohanka Acosta Rodríguez, known as "Maconcha," who was allegedly murdered by her former partner.
The individual -whose identity has not been disclosed- is already in police custody.
The case had generated consternation in El Vedado since the very day of the discovery, but the victim's identity 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 notice- leaves behind two children: an adult son and a minor daughter. The feminist organization extended its condolences to the children, family, and the local community mourning the victim, and requested the support of citizens to gather more information about the case.
Four stab wounds and death by bleeding
According to the 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 over the femicide of a resident on 27th Street, who was found dead after suffering four stab wounds. The murder, due to exsanguination, occurred early in the morning at the central park at the corner of 23rd Street and Paseo Avenue," wrote the academic on Facebook.
Neighbors cited by González Pagés reported that the alleged attacker had 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 verified feminicides in Cuba to 31 for the year 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 the 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 being allegedly attacked by her husband, without timely medical assistance due to power outages and the isolation of the rural community where she lived.
Last Thursday, the OGAT had confirmed three additional 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 recurring pattern 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 knife, and 62.5% occur in the immediate vicinity of the victim.
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 in place.
"The rise in femicides is alarming. All of this occurs in a context of crisis and lack of protection for women in Cuba, and it is a very, very dramatic situation for the entire Cuban population," concluded Ileana Álvarez.
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