Marcos Cuevas Sánchez passed away in the early hours of this Sunday following a motorcycle accident in the area of Trocha, in the province of Santiago de Cuba.
The news was shared by family and friends on Facebook. Aris Arias Batalla, the operations and rescue officer at MINSAP in Santiago de Cuba, also confirmed the identity of the young man.
According to eyewitnesses cited in the reports, Marcos was riding his motorcycle without a helmet when another vehicle struck him.
He was accompanied by a young woman known as Roxana, also called "la China," who survived but remains hospitalized.
As if the crash wasn’t enough, someone took advantage of the chaos to steal their motorcycle and all their belongings.
The young man left a baby orphaned and a family shattered by grief.
His cousin, Israel Alejandro Gámez Fonseca, expressed his sorrow on Facebook with heart-wrenching words: "It is sad and painful to wake up to the news that you have left this world. You were and will always be more than a brother to me. Rest in peace."
The death of Marcos also sparked a wave of civic outrage. Aris Arias Batalla himself demanded answers from the authorities: "Once again we wake up to the news of a young person dead and several injured in a motorcycle accident in Trocha. This is not the first time, and regrettably, if we do not act, it will not be the last."
Batalla noted that for months, residents in the area have alerted MININT and the local government about the illegal racing and speeding that turn that thoroughfare into a hotspot for accidents, particularly during weekend early mornings, without receiving an effective response.
"La Trocha and other main avenues are not speedways; they are roads where families, children, the elderly, and workers coexist. Every weekend, we play Russian roulette," he wrote.
In his post, Batalla does not call for a ban on recreation, but rather for specific measures: a visible police presence during high-risk hours, speed controls, educational campaigns, and penalties for those who organize illegal races on avenues such as Trocha, Carrera del Morro, Ferreiro, and Garzón.
So far, it has not been independently confirmed whether the deceased young man was participating in any motorcycle race.
This accident is not an isolated incident. In January, Félix Yoan Pozo Leyva, 28 years old, died on Trocha street in a collision between two motorcycles.
On August 8, Leandry Osorio fell into a coma after an accident on the Ciudamar highway, and a week later Lonier Chacón Zamora was seriously injured in El Cobre.
The national outlook is equally alarming: in 2025, Cuba recorded 7,538 traffic accidents with 750 fatalities, compared to 634 deaths in 2024. Motorcycles and mopeds were involved in 63% of the incidents, resulting in 32% of the fatalities and 42% of the injuries.
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