Cuban Ministry of Education Reports Rape and Abuse in Schools

Twenty child abuse cases in schools were reported in 2020, including eight lewd acts, one case of sexual harassment, and one rape, according to official data from the Ministry of Education of the Cuban regime.

The official newspaper Invasor published the abuse statistics from the 2020 National Report on Human Trafficking published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba (Minrex).

According to the report, around 2,145 minors were sexually abused during 2020, increasing the annual average for the last seven years.

During the first quarter of 2020, the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) investigated four cases linked to the irregular hiring of artists headed to Turkey and China. The ministry prevented the departure of two groups because they were allegedly associated with human trafficking.

In all of these incidents, social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp were used for "the promotion of contracts, the recruitment of interested parties and the arrangement of procedures to countries where criminals have a security and logistics scheme, including the hiring of drivers and personal security service, means of transportation, as well as homes or apartments where travelers are concentrated."

In recent years, sexual abuse of minors in Cuba has mostly been reported through independent media.

In 2021, independent media reported how the manager of Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (Telecommunications Company of Cuba) in Matanzas was acquitted after being accused of raping a minor.

Months after the article was published, the Municipal Court of Matanzas summoned the victim's mother, Eddy la Rosa, to trial on January 8, 2021. De la Rosa said she endured mistreatment, misinformation, and irregularities throughout the process.

The Municipal Court of Matanzas acquitted the accused of the charges.