Cuba Archive - Case 5707

Case ID: 5707

Title: N/A

First name: Yunisledy

Last name: Lopez Rodriguez

Suffix: N/A

Aliases: N/A

Name also reported as: N/A

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Date of Birth: N/A

Civil Status: Unknown

Date of death/disappearance: Day:26 / Month:9 / Year:2014

Citizenship: N/A

Last known address: Vista Alegre

Last known city: Majabiquoa

Last known province-TOD: Las Tunas

Last known province current: Las Tunas

Last known country: Cuba

Location death-address: Vista Alegre

Location of death - city: Majabiquoa

Location of death province - at TOD: Las Tunas

Location of death province - current: Las Tunas

Location of death - country: Cuba

Trial held?: N/A

Docket Number: N/A

Sentence details: N/A

Arrest or detention at time of death: No

Date of arrest: N/A

Imprisoned/Detained: Location: N/A

How long imprisoned/detained: N/A

Death attributed to: Castro regime

Death attribution detail: N/A

Associated Event: N/A

Case description:

Mother of two small children presumably murdered by state agents. Yunisledy had endured harassment by State Security, whose agents sought to evict her and her children from their home for her activism in the Civics and Truth movement. She had warned dissident Sirley Avila that her boyfriend, a regime agent, had been ordered to murder her. Facing death threats from individuals believed linked to the state (which she denounced to police), two days after telling Avila that she feared for her life, a man known as "El Tejón" entered the house and stabbed her 18 times in front of her two children as she was preparing their meal. This was made to appear as a crime of passion. On May 2015, Sirley Avila survived a brutal machete attack, losing a hand and enduring severe injuries to the legs that left her crippled. Sirley had been a delegate to the Municipal Assembly for the rural area of Limones, province of Cienfuegos, expelled after advocating for a school to be reopened in her district and for reaching out to the international media when her demands were ignored. Her son had been forced out of the Cuban military after an 18-year career after refusing to declare his mother insane and commit her to a psychiatric facility.  Sirley left Cuba for the United States as a political asylee in 2017 after being denied adequate medical attention and facing death threats.
=====================================
Yunisledy, de 23 años, tenía dos niños pequeños. Había sufrido el acoso de la Seguridad del Estado, que buscaba expulsarla con sus hijos del hogar por su activismo en el Movimiento de Educación Cívica y Verdad. Le había contado a la disidente Sirley Avila que a su novio, agente del régimen, le habían ordenado asesinarla y que había sido amenazada de muerte por individuos
vinculados al estado (lo cual denunció a la policía). Dos días después, un hombre entró a su casa y la apuñaló 18 veces frente a sus dos hijos. Varios meses después, en mayo de 2015, Sirley Avila fue brutalmente atacada con machete por el cual perdió una mano y sufrió graves heridas en las piernas.

Sources: Conflict of Evidence:

Violation Status: Confirmed with primary source(s)

Cause of Death: - Extrajudicial killing, possible/suspected

Occupations: - N/A

External Files: N/A

Relatives in Archive: N/A

Victim Type: - Political opponent: member of opposition group

Affiliations: - Civics and Truth movement

Other Victims Same Event: N/A

Case Record - Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez