At the closing session of the 11th Congress of the Cuban Women’s Federation (FMC), the head of State pointed out that in order to confront this scourge, the police and the courts are not enough. He also considered it necessary to improve popular and family education systems at the community level with prophylactic and preventive approaches.
He stressed that in particular, preventive action is required in the community, in the neighborhood, with timely identification of each case prone to gender-based violence.
The head of State stressed that although the scourge of violence against women in Cuba does not reach the brutal expressions that occur in other countries, “the cases that appear with regrettable frequency are enough to outrage us and act.”
Díaz-Canel indicated that the enemies of the Cuban Revolution conveniently and tendentiously use and manipulate the figures.
For the State, a single case is alarming and unacceptable, “since these are people, human beings, lives that have been cut short, lacerated, as a result of the validity of degrading patterns of a patriarchy that is incompatible with the principles of a socialist society.”
A single name of a violated woman should be enough to make us feel indignant and act energetically on a political and legal level, he stated.
The president denounced that subversive anti-Cuba platforms try to impose the matrix that feminicide exists in Cuba, a term that indicates strong state inaction in the face of gender-based violent acts.
He categorically assured that this is a media construct completely alien to Cuba’s reality.
He recalled that Cuba has legal regulations with very precise sections, which classify as crimes the most diverse figures that can undermine the physical, psychological or moral integrity of women.
To mention just one example, in 2023, Cuban courts sentenced 61 murderers of women, he noted.
He explained that in 93 percent of the cases, the sentences exceeded 20 years and five people are serving life imprisonment.
Díaz-Canel called on the FMC members to work intensely from the grassroots of the organization to impact the lives of people in vulnerable situations.
The president underlined that the Congress coincides with International Women’s Day, a date marked by women’s rebellion against a discriminatory order that prevails globally.
In his speech, Díaz-Canel reiterated his condemnation of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, and in particular against women and children on that territory.
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