CUBA-CRIME: Violent Crime Increases in Cuba

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 14 1997 (IPS) - The tranquil image of Cuba as a peaceful island, the underdog fighting against economic sanctions, has been jarred by an increase in violent crime, police reports revealed.

While officials declare that “we live and shall continue to live in a peaceful country” a state TV newscast carried reports on recent assaults that resulted in the death of victims, and newspapers blared the details of the rape of a young girl in a Central Havana park.

At the same time, officials have been quick to add that the rate of crime in Cuba was lower than in other Latin American countries. But although Havana residents still walk city streets with confidence – perhaps out of habit – homicide is on the increase, according to a recent government study.

There were 15 murders per 100,000 inhabitants of Havana in 1994 – the latest year covered by the study – meaning an annual violent death count of more than 1,000. In 1980, statistics put the number of homicides at 623.

On the other hand, Romarico Sotomayor, a division head for the National Revolutionary Police, says that the overall crime rate “declined by 30,000 cases between 1993 and 1995 and there was a further reduction in 1996 of 9 per cent.”

Sociologists attributed the increase in violence to an abrupt decline in living standards along with declining personal and social discipline and serious shortcomings in the medical care system.

A female university professor – who no longer goes home alone – said that “the streets are terrible, although someone visiting from outside may not be immediately aware of it. Clearly, if you compare the situation with the unrestrained street crime of Bogota or Caracas, then the difference makes one laugh. However, we Cubans compare our own lives with the social reality of just a few years ago.”

The 39-year-old professor went on to say that “this is the first time since I started going out without my parents – say, at the age of 15 – that I’m afraid to be on the streets of Havana after midnight.” Still, she added, so far “nothing has happened to me.”

Romarico Sotomayor told an audience at Cuba’s Central Workers’ Headquarters – the island’s only authorized labor union – that “we solved 8 per cent more cases in 1996 than in 1995.”

He said that “Cuba is the Latin American country that registers the fewest homicides” but he does admit that this “does not hide the reality we’ve all been living since the economic crisis of 1990.”

“Along with material privation there has been marked erosion of personal values with an accompanying increase in crime, but never approaching the frequency that has long been commonplace in other countries.”

According to findings of the Seminar on Urban Criminal Violence in Latin America and the Carribean, conducted earlier this month in Rio de Janeiro, the region registered 30.7 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Pan American Health Organization considers violence a public health problem and reports that the murder rate in Guatemala and El Salvador is 150 per 100,000, a rate that is even higher than the 89.5 per 100,000 registered in Colombia.

Sahid Javed Burki, Vice-President of the World Bank for Latin America and the Carribean told a Washington gathering earlier this month that the increase in criminal violence is due to mounting poverty and unbalanced income distribution. Furthermore, Burki pointed out that increased crime indices are standing in the way of economic development.

Sotomayor says that Cuba’s police force has worked hard in the last year to design and improve ways to fight crime, starting with mechanisms relating to preventible causes of delinquency and prioritizing those of greatest social impact. Nevertheless, many Cubans complain that often police do not arrive fast enough to prevent crime as it unfold; in other cases criminal investigation is subject to delay; and on some occasions the police do not handle informants and victims with due respect.

Sotomayor pointed out that “police officers have to make a number of rapid highly personalized decisions, and often must make them in a fraction of a second. Furthermore, only 10 per cent of citizen grievances are based in fact.”

Havana, which has over 2 million inhabitants, and Holguin, 475 miles east of the capitol, are the areas with the highest indices of violence. Most homicide victims in Havana and Holguin are between 15 and 49 years of age, and, according to the same study, 82 per cent of all murder cases involved men.

In Havana, more than 70 per cent of all murders committed in 1994 involved people who knew each other well. In 50 per cent of these cases, the victims had verbally or physically provoked their attackers.

Experts say that if it weren’t for alcohol use and third parties who bated the confrontation of spouses, friends and acquaintances, more than 25 per cent of all murders would not have taken place. Crimes of passion motivated by “love, hate, rancor or fear of an aggressor”, together with personal disputes and robbery, were the cause of most homicides reviewed by the study.

Among the foremost psychological traits manifest by those involved in homicide are pigheadedness, self-assuredness, optimism, whimsy, a desire to dominate, and a tendency to be impulsive.

Cuban District Attornies say they are against increasing the prison population but that they are committed to doing everything legally possible to maintain domestic tranquillity throughout the island.