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Alas Tensas confirms two femicides in two days as its 2026 count reaches 63

Juana María Guzmán Torres, 54, and Yasmina Ruano González, 32, were killed on November 8 and 9 in Manzanillo and Nueva Gerona, the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory confirmed on Tuesday. Independent counts for 2026 range from 58 to 63 cases.

The Alas Tensas Gender Observatory (Ogat) confirmed on Tuesday, November 10, the killing of Guzmán Torres, an early childhood teacher known as Mayi, on Sunday the 8th in the La Cañada neighbourhood of Manzanillo, Granma province, allegedly by her partner in the home they shared. The platform verified that the alleged attacker was arrested by police. She leaves two adult children.

A day later, on Monday the 9th, Ruano González was killed at her home in the 26 de Julio district of Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud. Alas Tensas said the alleged attacker was also her partner and that the killing happened in front of the victim's young son, aged between six and eight, who «is left in a situation of aggravated abandonment because his father does not live in Cuba». The organisation is calling for «specialised, timely and sustained psycho-emotional care» for the child. According to community sources consulted by the observatory, the attacker was arrested the same day.

The independent counts do not match. Alas Tensas records 63 femicides in Cuba since January; 14ymedio records 59, because it does not treat the killing of women in robberies or other chance circumstances as gender-based; and the news agency EFE records 58, drawing on the registers of independent feminist organisations.

Cuba publishes no up-to-date, systematic official register of femicides and does not define femicide as a separate offence in its criminal code, so these killings are tried under other charges. The government, which proclaims a policy of «zero tolerance» for gender violence, confirmed that courts identified 49 women over the age of 15 killed for reasons of gender by partners, former partners or others in last year's proceedings.

Beyond the confirmed cases, Alas Tensas also counts 38 attempted femicides this year and two killings of men in contexts of gender violence, and is still verifying 11 possible femicides and 18 attempts in 2026, as well as 12 possible gender killings and five attempts from 2025. The data do not enter the confirmed register until activists corroborate the victims' identities, their relationship with the alleged attackers and the circumstances of each case.

The organisations are asking the government to publish regular official statistics, to make femicide a specific criminal offence, to apply protection protocols, to open shelters for women at risk and to run emergency lines that work effectively.

Sources: 14ymedio · Infobae

Data updated: 2026-11-11T04:15:00.000Z

Alas Tensas confirms two femicides in two days as its 2026 count reaches 63 | Yamacoa Observatory