A farmer identified as Julián, a resident of the Jarahueca neighborhood in the municipality of Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, publicly reported that he was the victim of a violent armed robbery during the early morning, in a video shared on Facebook that captures his direct testimony.
According to Julián himself, it all began at 12:08 a.m. when several men armed with guns and stones stormed onto his property. "Last night at 12:08, I was attacked with a gun and they struck me on the leg with a stone," he stated.
The attackers did not act alone during the first incursion: the farmer reported that they had the assistance of a neighbor who was at his house at the time.
At 1:17 in the morning, the wrongdoers returned in greater numbers. “At one seventeen, they came back, much more than three men, and they pelted us with stones, they killed the dogs,” recounted Julián, who described how they slashed his dog’s throat in front of him.
Only the intervention of the community prevented the livestock from being taken: a neighbor who was with Julián ran to raise the alarm, and the nearby residents arrived in time to thwart the robbery.
The four animals belonging to Julián —including a yoke of oxen— were the only ones available in the entire area for working the land. The farmer lent them to his neighbors for free and also used them to carry water and debris from the Reinaldo Obró polyclinic, charging nothing in return.
In light of the fear and the repeated attacks, Julián announced that he will be forced to sell his animals and leave. "Today I must painfully leave my home and try to sell my animals because a bad man is attacking our home," he stated.
The farmer emphasized that his case is not isolated: "It's not just my case; all my neighbors have been affected too. There are no animals to work with, and sadly, we have to leave the land."
The incident occurs in a municipality that has seen a series of serious rural crimes in recent months. The farmer Osvaldo Carbonel was murdered on May 2, 2026 in the neighboring municipality of Segundo Frente, also in Santiago de Cuba, after recovering his stolen oxen; the attackers returned days later and killed him with extreme violence.
In August 2025, four individuals were arrested in Songo-La Maya for killing a neighbor during an animal robbery in the Quintoque area, and in July of the same year a farmer was murdered with machetes in El Manguito, within the same municipality.
On a national scale, the pattern is equally alarming. The Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory recorded at least 193 thefts linked to the theft and slaughter of livestock between January and June 2025, while Las Tunas reported almost 2,000 crimes against livestock in just four months of 2024.
Julián concluded his complaint with a direct appeal to the authorities: "We are living by the law of the jungle. I urge all the people and all the humble who have touched the hearts of the rulers, to change their laws so that the farmers can sleep peacefully and work in tranquility again."
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