Didiannys Barreto Palmero, 34 years old, was killed on September 25 in Ceballos, Ciego de Ávila, by her ex-partner, in a crime that leaves two girls, approximately seven and three years old, orphaned.
The case was confirmed this Monday by the feminist observatory Alas Tensas. According to testimonies gathered by independent journalist Niover Licea from the platform NiO Reportando Un Crimen, and family sources from the area, the alleged aggressor was Aliex Rosabales Báez, 43 years old, with supposed criminal records, with whom Didiannys had decided to end the relationship.
The victim's body was found around 9:00 PM on a farm in the Ceballos 5 area, having suffered, according to witness accounts, numerous stab wounds and a severe neck injury.
Rosabales Báez, who was not the father of the minors, took his own life after committing the crime.
A friend of the victim expressed on social media: "Rest in peace, Didi, an excellent colleague. We, her coworkers, feel her loss deeply; she worked at the Pedagogical School of Morón."
Among the most heartbreaking details of the case is that the crime occurred precisely on the birthday of Didiannys' mother, a date that should have been one of celebration.
Activists report that this femicide may be excluded from the official statistics of the government-sponsored Cuban Gender Equality Observatory (OCIG), which only counts cases that have gone through the judicial system, excluding those in which the aggressor dies before being prosecuted.
This methodological gap is a recurring criticism: Alas Tensas, which applies broader criteria, counts 54 femicides so far this year, in addition to 27 attempted misogynist murders.
The crime occurred just six days after the murder of Yusinay Capetillo Martínez, 41 years old, strangled by her ex-son-in-law during a blackout in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana.
The pattern repeats: ex-partner who kills the woman after the breakup and then takes their own life. It is one of the most documented cases among the femicides recorded in Cuba in 2026, a year in which the Gender Observatory of Alas Tensas reported 37 femicides in just the first half of the year, compared to 18 in the same period of 2025, marking an increase of 112.5%.
The OCIG reported that in 2025, 49 cases of gender-based homicides were prosecuted, a figure that authorities presented as a decrease compared to the 76 cases in 2024 and the 60 in 2023. However, specialists consulted by IPS Cuba warn that these figures reflect judicial delays and primarily correspond to incidents from previous years.
The statistical opacity is compounded by a structural legal void: femicide is not classified as an autonomous crime in the Cuban Penal Code, which has been in effect since 2022, where it only appears as an aggravating factor of homicide, and the National Assembly rejected an amendment to incorporate it as an independent criminal figure.
Alas Tensas continues to seek confirmation of other outstanding cases: Anais Tamayo Puente, Ana Vivian Suárez Cruz, and Bárbara Sánchez González.
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