Fabián Leiva Ferrer was arrested by Cuban authorities after allegedly climbing onto the roof of a house in the Flor Crombet Popular Council, municipality of Jovellanos, Matanzas province, and taking the solar panel installed there, according to the official page "Con Todos La Victoria" on Facebook.
The theft allegedly occurred in the early morning: the man cut the cables, removed the equipment's restraints, and took it away.
The publication from the official profile notes that Leiva Ferrer would have a history of similar incidents: "he has a few similar feats in his track record."
The case adds to a series of solar panel thefts that have hit Matanzas particularly hard in recent weeks.
At the beginning of September, a mother from Alacranes reported the theft of her EcoFlow and solar panel while she was purchasing school supplies for her children.
Days later, three individuals were arrested for stealing 28 solar panels intended for a water pumping system in Los Arabos, of which only 21 were recovered.
The pattern is repeated throughout the country. In July, neighbors in Camagüey apprehended a man who was jumping from rooftop to rooftop to steal panels before the police arrived.
In Santiago de Cuba, criminals struck for the third time in just over a month, targeting the infrastructure of a neighborhood and stealing four panels from an electrical cabinet. In Holguín, four individuals attacked and tied up the guard at a pumping station to steal 32 units.
Behind this wave of crime is the energy crisis that Cuba is experiencing, with blackouts in some provinces exceeding 20 hours a day, which has driven up the value of photovoltaic panels in the informal market, making them a primary target for thieves.
The regime has responded with a legal crackdown: the People's Supreme Tribunal issued Opinion 475 in May 2025, which classifies the theft of panels as sabotage under Article 125 of the Penal Code, with penalties ranging from seven to 30 years, life imprisonment, or the death penalty in the most severe cases.
Despite this, Cuban authorities acknowledged more than 460 criminal investigations for offenses against the National Electric System between 2025 and the first half of 2026.
The figures for general criminality are also alarming. The Cuban Citizen Audit Observatory recorded 2,833 verified crimes in 2025, an increase of 115% compared to 2024 and 337% compared to 2023, with an average of seven or eight crimes daily across the island.
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