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17 mothers and 73 children occupy a former boxing gym in Santa Clara over lack of housing
The families have spent days inside the building in the El Caracatey neighbourhood, in Villa Clara, and report police patrols, visits by officials and eviction threats, according to accounts gathered by Martí Noticias and ADN Cuba.
Seventeen mothers and their 73 children are staying in a former boxing gym in the El Caracatey neighbourhood of Santa Clara, in Villa Clara province, for lack of a housing solution, according to accounts gathered by Martí Noticias and ADN Cuba and compiled by Infobae. The families say the building had long gone without regular sporting use and that they decided to move in after years of petitions.
Among the children there are newborns, children with chronic illnesses and teenagers. Katia, one of the mothers, told Martí Noticias that many are raising their children alone, that others live in structurally damaged buildings or in space lent by relatives and neighbours, and that some women have spent more than a decade filing paperwork: "We are desperate."
Carmenli, a mother of two children aged 11 and 14 who suffers from lupus, diabetes and high blood pressure, told the same broadcaster that she was left without a home after separating from her partner and ended up sleeping with her children in the doorway of a GeoCuba office in Santa Clara.
The women report police patrols, visits by officials and eviction threats. One of the occupants told ADN Cuba that several people in plain clothes came to the building, asked questions and recorded images with cameras and phones, and that two of them said they belonged to a GeoCuba project; she also said Interior Ministry agents had warned of criminal consequences if the families did not leave. Some mothers say they were threatened with losing custody of their children.
The families say the authorities have offered them neither alternative housing nor temporary shelter, that neighbours have brought them water and food, and that they avoid leaving the building for fear of an eviction when fewer people are around. Activist Guillermo "Coco" Fariñas, of the United Antitotalitarian Front (FANTU), visited the site to back their demand.
Sources: Infobae
Data updated: 2026-11-01T04:15:00.000Z