Arrest Made in Aguacate, Santiago de Cuba, After Man Voices Outrage Over Multiple Murders

Luis Ángel Ríos Cala was detained this Monday for commenting during a funeral that the high number of murders in Aguacate is due to a lack of justice. This small locality in the municipality of Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, has witnessed three violent deaths in less than a year.

The village of Aguacate is in shock following the murder of Arianni Céspedes, a young mother of three, who was killed with a single stab wound to the lung, according to sources close to her family. The crime occurred in the Alejo neighborhood, which has seen three murders in less than a year. Arianni was killed by her ex-partner in front of two children, aged 5 and 6, who were nearby collecting almonds.

"The neighborhood is in complete silence. Everyone is either high or low on blood pressure, and nobody wants to walk past Arianni's house. After killing her, the stepfather of the children took them to some neighbors and told them he had just killed their mother," stated a witness.

Community Outrage and Detention

In such a tense atmosphere, emotions ran high at Arianni Céspedes’ funeral. Luis Ángel Ríos Cala, a cousin of Jorge Luis Heredia Cala (Case 97/2024), who was murdered in March of this year in Aguacate, voiced his frustration by saying, "If there were justice in this town, there wouldn't be so many murders."

The National Police arrived on Monday to arrest Ríos Cala for making this comment at the funeral. Meanwhile, the confessed killer of his cousin, known by the alias Tatico, remains free in Aguacate, as does the accomplice who recently assaulted a 19-year-old. Both are at liberty and have not been held accountable by the police.

At the time of publishing, Luis Ángel Ríos Cala, who has not killed anyone and is simply seeking justice, remains detained at La Territorial Unit in Palma Soriano.

Multiple Murders in Aguacate

The murder of Jorge Luis Heredia Cala occurred in March this year in an alley in the Alejo neighborhood. Heredia was about to turn 51 when he was killed, shortly after discovering a marijuana plantation in the woods and warning the growers that he knew about it. He was struck multiple times in the head with a rock. The confessed killer was released by the prosecution, claiming he had thrown the rock intending to hit an owl in a dark alley at 8 PM. He only served five months in provisional detention.

However, this wasn't the first horrific crime in Aguacate. The most shocking incident happened in November 2023 when a young girl, Dorka Velázquez, who had just celebrated her 15th birthday, was murdered during an attempted rape. Initially, it was believed she had been raped, but the autopsy revealed she was a virgin at the time of her death. Her murder sent shockwaves through the village, as the police took time to find the rapist, who was eventually caught stealing food from a neighbor's house.

When the rapist was captured, the villagers took the law into their own hands, beating him severely. "If the police hadn't taken him away, the women would have killed him," said a witness. Dorka Velázquez's family, who are Christians and very reserved, did not report the case, though it gained attention on Facebook. "It was a very intense case. The boy who killed her was from Media Luna (Bayamo) and was so psychopathic that he watched the funeral from behind some trees," concluded a local resident.