IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 18

Race, Class and Gender

Youth violence:
a terrible scourge
Yordis García Fournier
Political Activist, Delegate of the Cuban Youth Movement for
Democracy
Guantánamo, Cuba

I

t is said that Guantánamo is the
Cuban province with the highest
rate of youth violence. It is difficult
to accept it for sure, because the
statistics are exclusively handled by the
authorities in absolute secrecy and there
is a striking absence of free
investigative journalism. Even so, the
truth is that if Guantánamo’s rate is not
the highest, it is close to be. Since my
childhood, I always heard testimonies
and witnessed violent bloodshed,
mostly fatal, which endure to this day in
this forgotten and easternmost region of
the Isle.
Niober Garcia Fournier, a reporter from
the independent news agency Hablemos
Press, documented six killings in July
and August 2016. Some occurred during
street brawls among adolescents; others
were crimes of passion, like a teacher
killed at the Provincial Penitentiary
during a conjugal visit. There are many
other cases of similar features and
motives that do not come to light

because they could not have been
properly documented. Like almost in
every topic, the official media and the
local authorities keep silent. In the
paradise of the tropical socialism, such
deeds do not happen. They only take
place outside our borders.
Despite being impossible to quantify the
violent crimes that have always struck
the Cuban society, many citizens
believe not only that Guantánamo is the
most violent province, but also that the
whole country has one of the highest
rates of violence worldwide.
In my hometown, the causes of such a
phenomenon are obvious, particularly
among young people. To begin with, the
Cuban government has intentionally
encouraged a violent behavior in several
ways, particularly by cancelling and
even prosecuting diverse religious
practices that had always contributed to
educate young people in moral and
human
values.

View of Guantánamo’s neighborhoods Oeste (West), Ho Chi Minh y La Punta
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