Havana/On the night of June 2, during a blackout, Adrianelys Nieves Castillo, 24, was murdered by her ex-partner in Camagüey. The attacker forced his way into her home and attacked her in front of her minor daughter. The alleged perpetrator of the crime, according to the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (Ogat), is in police custody.
That same day, in San Francisco de Paula, in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, Estefany García, known as Tita, 29 years old, also died at the hands of her ex-partner. The man, who is already incarcerated, had a history of sexist violence, according to the information disseminated by the independent platform. Estefany leaves behind a baby girl who is barely six months old, the result of another relationship.
The third case was registered in Eastern Havana. The body of Yanet Sánchez Espino, 48, was found lifeless on May 30 on Guanabo beach. Although her death remains under investigation, Alas Tensas reported that it was able to identify “clear gender biases” in the events, after verifying information with close family sources. Sánchez, a resident of El Vedado, in Plaza de la Revolución, leaves behind an adult daughter.
The murder of Nieves Castillo once again draws attention to one of the most sensitive and dark areas of this violence: the children who remain as direct witnesses of the attacks
With these three cases, 14ymedio counts 25 deaths due to sexist violence in Cuba so far in 2026. Alas Tensas, for its part, reports 29 femicides so far this year, in addition to 19 attempted feminicides and one murder of a man for gender reasons. The observatory includes some crimes against women associated with a motive other than machismo, such as the case of Yarisleidis Saavedra Hernández or that of Olimpia Pérez, a 79-year-old woman who was found dead in her home in Mayabeque, on March 2.
The murder of Nieves Castillo once again draws attention to one of the most sensitive and dark areas of this violence: the children who remain as direct witnesses of the attacks. His daughter, in addition to losing her mother, witnessed a scene of extreme violence. The organization recommended that the family seek specialized care for the minor, now marked by the experience.
The communicator Niover Licea published on his Facebook page an audio attributed to Nieves’s stepmother, in which new details are provided about what happened. According to this testimony, the aggressor, identified as Omar, wounded Brian Saldívar Calvo, the young woman’s current partner, with a knife before pounced on her and stabbed her several times in the back and neck. When trying to defend himself, Nieves also received cuts on his hands and arms.
In the case of Estefany García, orphanhood hits a six-month-old baby. Her death joins a growing list of mothers murdered in Cuba by men who had been or wanted to remain their partners. Sexist violence leaves broken families, helpless minors and entire communities forced to reconstruct what happened based on comments, publications on social networks and official silences.
The Cuban Government still does not recognize feminicide as an autonomous crime nor does it offer a preventive response commensurate with the emergency.
San Miguel del Padrón, where Estefany died, had already been the recent scene of another case of crimes against women. The municipality, one of the most populated and vulnerable in Havana, appears again and again in reports of crimes, precariousness and social conflict. But the problem is not limited to one neighborhood or one province. Violence crosses the country and worsens amid the economic crisis, blackouts, transportation shortages, the deterioration of public services and the lack of shelters for victims.
Feminist observatories have insisted for years on the need for a comprehensive law against gender violence, effective protection protocols, updated public statistics and temporary shelters for women at risk. The Cuban Government, although it has incorporated references to gender violence in the Penal Code and has created an official observatory, still does not recognize feminicide as an autonomous crime nor does it offer a preventive response commensurate with the emergency.
The absence of immediate official data leaves the recording of these crimes in the hands of independent media and platforms such as Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo in Cuba, which verify the cases through family and community sources and local publications. Their work fills an information gap that the State does not cover or covers late, with general figures and without the necessary details to evaluate protection failures, the background of the aggressors or institutional responsibilities.
