The “Culture” of Violence in Cuba

…and the half-hearted attempt to tackle it

Osmel Ramirez Alvarez

HAVANA TIMES — Although it might not be apparent to the tourist, our society is very violent in many ways. It’s sad to admit it, but that’s our reality and we don’t get anywhere by minimizing it or denying it. If selling firearms was legal here, Cuba would be the Wild West.

There are many different forms of violence: on the street, when there are carnivals and other festivities, in lines and even on buses. It is physical a lot of the time, but it is constantly verbal.

A graphic example: on the P-12 urban bus I caught in Havana on November 19th, after I was banned by immigration from traveling to Peru, a man almost killed another one for pushing him when getting off the bus. The victim had also been pushed by the crowd. His wife and children were crying while he was kicked on the ground by the angry passenger. Somebody saved him from dying from a bad blow and got back on the bus. His gesture was human, but the strange thing was that he regretted not having brought along a knife “to kill that abusive guy.” Just imagine!

However, the most frequent and cutting form of violence in our society is domestic, mainly against women and young girls. For a few weeks now, there has been a great campaign to try and make this scourge visible, which is an excellent idea.

Machismo endures like a bad inheritance which is aggravated by Cuba’s critical socio-economic landscape. Cuban women freed their minds, but they are currently out-of-step with their most adverse social reality.

For example, they end up stuck in dysfunctional marriages a lot of the time because they have no way to be independent. The burden of looking after children and the household are great factors, of course. However, both are conditioned by the miserly wages that make their lives an odyssey. And that is the breeding ground for domestic violence.

No man woos a woman by saying that if he doesn’t like something he will beat her or insult her. The violent ones are the ones who sell themselves the best, as they are almost always innate manipulators who deceive everyone around them and victimize them.

And a very complicated psychosocial web is formed that only very few women, alone, are able to untangle. That’s why help via institutions and effective laws is so important.

The first problem we have is our police, where there are mostly men and most often practice macho solidarity. It’s very hard for a woman to decide to file a report but a lot of the time, it’s even harder to convince the police to accept them. Mainly in municipalities where nearly everyone has one relative or friend in uniform. People always think the victim is exaggerating until a tragedy happens.

Not even six months ago in Cocal, Mayari, an ex-husband holding a machete killed his ex-wife in the middle of a square, when she got out of a car, because she didn’t want to get back together with him. He left three children orphans by committing this crime. According to his brother, who was with him and lost some fingers trying to keep him back, he just wanted to intimidate her so that she would reconsider. When the impassioned brute saw what he had done, he slit his own throat and died in surgery.

It’s known that this young mother, under 30 years of age, had gone to report him to the police not long before. But, we don’t know why the case wasn’t followed up on, whether she herself withdrew it or whether the police just had a half-hearted approach. After a woman accuses the alleged abuser, he is supposed to be arrested to prevent reprisals and if he runs away she should be given shelter for her own safety.

But, normally, a lot of family and social pressure begins for her to retract her statement, which the police not so subtly cooperate with (by not opposing this or explaining the dangers or statistics of what the consequences are). They accept it and that’s it, prior agreement.

The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) has a support program for women and children, but it hardly has any social impact. Very few women know that it exists as it isn’t publicized or promoted, they don’t even enter into contact with the police to accompany victims who go to them and they don’t do any community work either. The FMC works even less than the Committees in Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), which is a shame because even though it is not a real civic organization, it’s the only one in the country that brings women together.

When there is democracy in Cuba someday, I’d propose a law that bans a woman from withdrawing her complaint of domestic or gender violence so as to prevent immunity because of family and social pressure. This should also include training specialists in this subject and it should be the victim herself who protects herself if she feels in danger, because it is unfair to arrest the accused without any evidence of his guilt.

Steps needs to be taken so that the greatest social justice possible exists and the battle against these forms of violence is crucial. However, wanting to participate within today’s political system is very hard and dangerous, because even though you can legally collect signatures, it is banned in practice and is seen as an act of political dissidence.

Giving visibility to the subject, creating awareness, planting ideas and breaking myths is what we can do for now. And that is no small feat.