A 26-year-old man identified as Jesús Alberto Martínez Fernández allegedly lost his life during the early hours of Friday following a violent incident that took place near Bar Galaxy, also known as El Villar, in the city of Palma Soriano, a municipality in the province of Santiago de Cuba.
The information initially circulated through social media, stemming from posts by alleged family members, friends, and activists. Cuban authorities have not issued any official statement regarding the case.
According to testimonies collected by communicator Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on his platform Kuba x Dentro, the incident reportedly began after an argument among several young people that escalated into a physical confrontation, during which Jesús Alberto attempted to mediate and was fatally wounded with a knife.
The victim's mother, Denia Fernández Rey —former Dama de Blanco, director of FLAMUR in Santiago de Cuba, and coordinator of the Women's Network in the Eastern region— stated that the wound was a direct hit to the heart.
Denia also reported serious material shortages during the emergency: there was no blood available at the hospital, there was no electricity, and there was no ambulance to address the situation.
The mother's complaints do not stop there. According to Mayeta Labrada, Denia claimed to have had difficulties obtaining her son's body and asserted that she was threatened by police officers and State Security during the funeral process. These accusations have not been confirmed by independent sources.
Publications on social media identified a man known as Wilfredo Vázquez, alias "Cueruso," as the suspected perpetrator. According to these reports, he has already been located by authorities, although there is no official confirmation.
A cousin of the victim, identified as Osmay Quesada, posted on : "They killed an innocent good son, good neighbor, good friend. What cowardice."
The funeral took place on Friday and was attended by a large crowd: hundreds of residents from Palma Soriano accompanied the funeral procession in a long convoy of motorcycles through the rain.
Several civil society organizations responded with messages of condolence and calls for justice. According to Alas Tensas, the Women's Network of Cuba identified Jesús Alberto as a leader of the opposition movement Impacto Juvenil and directly held the Cuban state accountable "for this incident and for the climate of insecurity that currently prevails in our streets."
The victim's father, Alberto Martínez, is identified as the director of the Republican Party of Cuba, which makes this family a prominent opposition nucleus in the eastern region.
FLAMUR described the event as a "vile assassination" and called for measures to curb the violence: "We cannot stay silent in the face of such barbarity. Crime and criminality are claiming lives and causing pain in Cuban families."
The case occurs just days after the femicide of a 23-year-old woman in the same municipality, reported on June 9, in a context of a sustained escalation of violence in Cuba, which the Cuban Observatory for Citizen Audit reported as 2,833 verified crimes in 2025, a 115% increase compared to 2024.
So far, Cuban authorities have not provided any official details regarding the progress of the investigations or the status of the alleged suspect.
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