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A 17-year-old teenager lost her life in the neighborhood of La Güinera, in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality of Havana, after being stabbed in the chest during an incident in which she was not the intended target.
According to a Facebook post by a relative of the victim, identified as Laneta Kbola Asere, the attacker was trying to stab a young man known as El Jimagua while riding a motorcycle, but she, who was accompanying him, was the one who sustained the injury.
"She stabbed the jimagua, and my little cousin took it, right in the middle of the chest," the relative wrote on the social media platform.
The victim, described by her loved ones as "the twin" —referring to the fact that she was a twin— had just turned 17 years old.
The alleged attacker was identified in the post as the son of a neighbor in the neighborhood. At the time of the report on social media, the police had not been able to locate him.
The relative shared photographs of the suspect and urged the community to report him if they saw him, highlighting the mistrust that exists in the neighborhood towards law enforcement and the pursuit of justice through alternative means.
Dozens of people who commented on the post could not believe such a crime.
Another acquaintance of the victim, to dispel rumors that the young woman was involved in a fight, said: "She was not in any brawl, she was on a motorcycle with the guy, who was doing her a favor by taking her to pick up a delivery and the man surprised them and stabbed; the guy dodged it, and it hit her. Please respect the family's pain and don't speak without knowing."
Around a hundred internet users expressed their condolences for such a loss.
La Güinera is a popular neighborhood in the south of Havana, characterized by a history of marginalization and social tension.
It was one of the epicenters of the protests on July 11, 2021, during which the young Diubis Laurencio Tejeda lost his life due to police action. In May and June 2026, the neighborhood made headlines again due to protests against blackouts and the economic crisis.
The municipality of Arroyo Naranjo has seen several homicides in recent months. In November 2025, Diosdaysis Sandoval Damas was murdered in the same area, and in February of that year, Rayne Paisan Dales lost his life under similar circumstances.
This case contributes to a sustained escalation of violence in Cuba documented by independent observers. The Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory recorded 2,833 verified crimes in 2025, an increase of 115% compared to 2024.
At the national level, femicides reached 45 cases in 2025. In December of that year, the teenager Heidi García Orosco, also 17 years old, was stabbed to death by her partner in Jovellanos, Matanzas, in one of the cases that raised that number to 45 femicides that year.
Human rights organizations have documented more than 350 femicides in Cuba from 2019 to June 2026, in a context of the absence of specific legislation and institutions that do not provide effective responses to victims or their families.
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