The death of Leandro Baró Lameiro, 16, after being stabbed in Las Tunas three weeks ago, has the municipal Education authorities on edge. Although managers have been careful when commenting on the event in the official pressadmitted this Friday that there are 13 teenagers under police investigation and that in high schools in their jurisdiction it is common for students to carry knives and consume drugs.
“We are experiencing a very tense situation, derived from the death of the minor,” he assured the official. Newspaper 26 Eulícer Escalona, deputy director of the Provincial Directorate of Education.
Very little is known about Baró’s murder: the Police have not revealed the identity of the aggressor, although everything seems to indicate that he is one of the students under investigation. Stabbed on September 29, with wounds that caused great blood loss, the teenager died the next day at the Mártires pediatric hospital in Las Tunas, after his relatives urgently requested in social networks plasma donations for transfusion.
For months, Las Tunas managers have recorded an increase in violence among high school youth. Baró’s case, although more serious, has not been the only one that has set off alarms among teachers.
Baró’s case, although more serious, has not been the only one that has triggered alarms among teachers
“We characterized a student who brought a knife to school (…). We went to the community, we interviewed the neighbors to find out their social development, but no one wanted to contribute any element, they closed the doors to us, so to speak” said Yanelis Heredia, director of the Wenceslao Rivero High School, where – everything seems to indicate – Baró studied and where one of the teenagers linked to his death remains under investigation.
Heredia assures that, since September, the dynamics of the school have changed and not only “what they bring in their backpacks and who they interact with” the students are controlled, but also who, from outside, roams the schools. “These days we detected some boys in front, we called the Inspection Group of the General Directorate of Education of the municipality and they immediately came and took them away,” he said, mentioning the so-called “groups of bicycle riders” – unemployed young people who remain outside of high schools and are frequently involved with adolescent girls – who “become a breeding ground for conflicts.”
In another secondary school, El Cucalambé, there have also been incidents of violence between students. “In our case, the Ángel López Jiménez stadium and the Multipurpose Room attract a lot of students, they gather at the exit, fight and so on (…). Recently there was a fight between our students and the nearby Polytechnic” , says Beatriz Reyes, director of the center.
Reyes also explains that in recent weeks many parents have begun to accompany their children to school and that some have even warned that they would stop sending them to the center where another of the boys investigated after the death of Baró, which caused that his acquaintances threatened on social networks to do “justice” to those involved.
For his part, Norge Sastre García, prosecutor of the Provincial Court, clarified that the young people involved in Baró’s death will be judged according to Cuban criminal responsibility, which is 16 years old, an age at which adolescents are prohibited, for example, get married, but they can end up in prison.
“I can assure you that before we saw two or three cases a year and now we see two or three every month”
Sastre, however, emphasized the severity of the treatment of defendants between 16 and 18 years old, who are placed in separate facilities and for whose crimes sentences can be reduced to half the years of that of an adult. The minors under 16 involved in the case, he added, will not be charged, but “other measures” applied by the Ministry of the Interior will be taken with them, which they did not specify.
consulted by Newspaper 26 Regarding the rise of violence among adolescents in the province, Madley Parra, a psychiatrist at the Las Tunas pediatric hospital, indicated that in a short time she has seen cases of drug dependence increase in her consultations. “I can assure you that before we saw two or three cases a year and now we see two or three every month,” she argued.
“The boys are consuming pills mixed with alcohol, but also marijuana and other more harmful substances. Some arrive with symptoms associated with suicide attempts and others come asking for help due to the appearance of hallucinations and signs of loss of sanity,” explained the doctor. who also runs the Celia Sánchez comprehensive training center, one of the spaces known in Cuba as a “school for minors.”
“Our service carries out the psychiatric evaluation of those students who are not over 16 years old and come from dysfunctional homes, and therein lies the other vital issue: the family as an institution is the first weak link in our society,” he said.
The specialist’s statement was the finishing touch to Newspaper 26 that, from the beginning of the report, he insisted on the total responsibility of the family for the adolescents. The media does not explain, however, why measures were not taken – before a tragic episode, like the one in Baró – to maintain security in schools when, according to the interviewees themselves, for at least a year the students have shown much more violent.
The testimony of Carlos Enrique Téllez, a worker at the provincial Department of Culture, gives the measure of how serious the situation has become. The administrator of the well-known cabaret Bajo las Estrellas – where “12 and 13 year old children” usually enter – decided to “confiscate” all the knives carried by those who enter the premises. The inventory is chilling: “Knives, punches, glass bottles and bicycle chains,” all “made with the aim of causing harm.”
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14 intervene is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long path. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.