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Residents of the Chicharrones neighborhood in Santiago de Cuba intercepted and restrained a man who was allegedly caught trying to commit a robbery, according to independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on Facebook.
The incident occurred on Friday around 2:00 AM on 3rd Street, between 20th and 22nd Streets, where several neighbors managed to subdue the individual before the authorities arrived.
The detained person is nicknamed "The Fat Guy," and according to local residents, he lives on the same block where he attempted to commit the crime.
The images shared show the man restrained at the scene. Later, Mayeta Labrada received photos confirming the arrival of the Police and the formal arrest of the suspect.
The episode is not an isolated case.
In recent months, Santiago de Cuba has been the scene of a series of similar situations where citizens, fed up with insecurity and distrustful of institutional responses, are taking matters into their own hands to detain suspected criminals.
In February, neighbors in the Vista Hermosa neighborhood detained an alleged thief caught trying to rob a house; in April, residents of Veguita de Galo captured a young man armed with a machete who had threatened a minor and robbed a doctor.
On June 7, a suspected cell phone thief was captured, beaten, and tied to a tree in the Sueño neighborhood while the police had yet to arrive at the scene.
In May, residents of the same neighborhood detained a 15-year-old adolescent who had snatched two chains and boldly declared: "I'm a minor, nothing is going to happen to me".
This pattern of vigilante justice reflects the deep distrust of the population in the regime's security institutions, which are unable to guarantee basic order in the neighborhoods.
The data supports that perception. According to the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit, there were 2,833 verified crimes reported in Cuba in 2025, marking an increase of 115% compared to 2024 and 337% compared to 2023.
Thefts were the most common crime, with 1,536 cases, representing a 479% increase since 2023. Santiago de Cuba recorded 323 verified offenses that year, making it the fourth most affected province in the country.
Analysts attribute this deterioration to the economic crisis—projecting a GDP contraction of 5% in 2025 and an accumulated decline of 15% since 2020—and to a police desertion rate, estimated to have increased by 20%, which has diminished the state's ability to respond to crime.
The Cuban regime has not issued any significant official statements regarding these episodes of popular justice, which reinforces the perception of impunity and institutional inaction in the face of a security crisis that Cuba records as an unprecedented increase in crime, while it focuses its resources on repressing dissent.
Mayeta Labrada, who has documented dozens of similar cases through her reporting line, summarized it with a phrase that circulates among the people of Santiago: "The people are tired of so much theft."
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