The Plaza de la Revolución Administration Council released images this Wednesday of suspected thieves captured during the weekly fair at Parque Villalón, in El Vedado, Plaza de la Revolución municipality, Havana.
According to the official publication on the social media platform Facebook, the detainees were attempting to steal belongings from attendees at the popular market that takes place every Wednesday at the corner of Calzada and C. They were first apprehended by the local residents and then handed over to the police, who transferred them to a unit to face charges, according to the text, "with the full weight of the law."
The publication included photographs of the detainees and concluded with the slogan: "In Plaza, the streets belong to the people and NOT to crime."
The message reflects a recurring communication pattern of the regime: spreading images of alleged common criminals on social media to project an image of police control to a public that perceives a serious deterioration of public safety.
However, the public display of detainees prior to any judicial process has been questioned by human rights organizations as a violation of basic procedural guarantees.
The official statement contrasts with the available data on insecurity on the Island. The Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory recorded 2,833 verified crimes in 2025, a 115% increase compared to 2024, of which 1,536 were thefts, the most common crime.
Havana ranks among the four provinces with the highest crime rates in the country, with 398 recorded offenses that year, alongside Matanzas, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba.
The Ministry of the Interior itself acknowledged in February of this year a 25% increase in property crimes, which it attributed to the "complex economic situation," without mentioning the decades of management that have led the country to this state.
The Plaza de la Revolución and El Vedado municipalities have experienced several similar incidents throughout 2026. Last June, residents of El Vedado detained a man who assaulted a young woman in an attempt to steal her electric motorcycle, and that same month, there were reports of over 30 home burglaries in El Vedado in just seven days.
In May, another man was captured stealing wheels from containers in Jovellar, also in El Vedado, and handed over to the Revolutionary National Police.
The practice of displaying detainees on social media by pro-government profiles, district representatives, and accounts linked to the MININT has intensified alongside the rise in crime, serving more as a propaganda tool than as a structural response to the problem.
The general context of repression in Cuba exacerbates the situation: according to data from Prisoners Defenders, by the end of May 2026 the Island reached a record of 1,281 political prisoners, illustrating that the regime's repressive machinery is applied with much greater rigor against those who protest than against the common crime that engulfs the population.
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