On August 14th, it marked one year since Noguella Lezcano Milián, an 80-year-old Cuban known as "La Gallega," disappeared in Havana without her family being able to locate her.
The Gender Observatory of Alas Tensas (OGAT) recalled the incident on its Facebook account to ensure that the alert continues to circulate and the case is not forgotten.
Noguella resides at Calzada de San Miguel del Padrón #9603, between 5th and 6th, Luyanó Moderno (La Cuevita). She is 1.50 meters tall, has blue eyes, and very short dark brown hair, and she usually wears a cap or headscarf.
She was reported missing to the police on August 16, 2025, two days after she was last seen in the Wajay area, just outside the capital.
Her situation is particularly serious: she suffers from epilepsy and dementia, and has experienced an ischemic episode that caused her memory loss, making her extremely vulnerable.
During these past 12 months, her granddaughters have visited hospitals, psychiatric centers, shelters for the homeless, and the headquarters of Forensic Medicine without obtaining any concrete leads about her whereabouts.
The search has also extended to the streets: the family posted flyers in churches, on poles, and in hospitals throughout the capital, and tirelessly shared the case on social media.
"If you have any information about their whereabouts, please contact: Lisandra: 58171805, Bebé: 53149024, Liset: 55381553," the post from Alas Tensas details.
In August 2025, the family offered a reward of 200 dollars to anyone who provided verified information about the whereabouts of the elderly woman.
“Please, I come with my heart in my hand asking each person to put themselves in my shoes. We need to find my grandmother!” wrote Lisandra García on Facebook shortly after the disappearance.
Months later, the granddaughters made another desperate plea: “We are desperate, please help us find her. Don’t discriminate against her or leave her alone.”
The OGAT activated the "Alerta Yeniset" - a citizen mechanism created to highlight the disappearances of women in Cuba - and has kept the case active throughout the year.
This mechanism, however, lacks state support and legal force: it is a tool for visibility that relies solely on civic solidarity and social media dissemination.
The case of Noguella exposes a structural flaw in the Cuban regime: the absence of official protocols, immediate alert systems, or legal mechanisms for the search of missing persons, comparable to the Amber Alert or other similar systems.
In the face of that institutional vacancy, Cuban families rely on social media and civil organizations to bring attention to the cases and mobilize public assistance.
According to the annual report by OGAT on 2025, that year documented 40 disappearances of women, girls, and boys in Cuba: 26 were found alive, six were discovered deceased, and eight remained under active alert at the close of the report.
In at least nine of those cases, mental health conditions or cognitive decline were reported, such as dementia or memory loss, the same profile of vulnerability exhibited by Noguella.
The case of the elderly woman is not the only one that remains open: other women continue to be missing in Cuba without any response from the State, among them Felicia Gómez Díaz, missing since December 5, 2024, in Trinidad, and Doraiky Águila Vázquez, 48 years old, who disappeared in Havana in March 2025.
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