Cubans condemn police killing a 17-year-old dad who was carrying a machete
The death of Zidan Batista Álvarez is drawing attention to the pervasive issue of police brutality and racial discrimination in Cuba.
A Black Cuban teenager was shot dead by area police in the island nation, and the incident, which was recorded on video, is drawing attention to the pervasive issue of police brutality and racial discrimination in Cuba.
Zidan Batista Álvarez, 17, was reportedly killed by officers responding to a fight in the Condado Sur neighborhood in Santa Clara, a city in central Cuba on Friday. A second person not involved in the fight was also injured, according to The Miami Herald.
The country’s Minister of the Interior said the slain teen was armed with a knife and machete and tried to attack one of the officers.
“Faced with the imminent danger to the officer’s life, his fellow officers made use of their service weapons in defense of his physical integrity,” a statement published on state media said. “In the unfortunate incident, the main aggressor died.”
Álvarez— the young father of a year-old girl — was shot in the thigh and in the chest. Several videos have been circulating on social media, including one that reportedly shows him being held on the ground surrounded by several police officers and bystanders.
In another clip, he’s seen on the ground, handcuffed and bleeding, but still moving. A third shows an officer kicking the teenager, while a fellow law authority prevents a bystander from helping the boy. A woman is heard crying out, “Why are they leaving that guy there?” Another person is heard saying, “He is going to die.”
The officers also reportedly did not attempt any lifesaving procedures.
“Here’s a young Black youth who was killed,” noted Afro-Cuban American scholar Amalia Z. Daché, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, “and the police shot him, he was on the ground, and there is no respect for humanity, no respect for the humanity of this young man. There is a racial dynamic tied to this.”
There have been at least four police killings since 2020 in Cuba, according to The Herald.
Scholars and historians say Cuba still has ongoing issues with systemic racism, including racial profiling and harassment. In addition, Black Cubans who leave the island also face racial discrimination.
“In fact, the country in the Americas where the largest number of people of African descent die at the hands of the police each year is Brazil,” Alejandro de la Fuente, a professor of African and African American Studies and director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University, told The Herald. “Cuba is no stranger to these dynamics, which are now increasingly visible. Structural racism has no borders.”
TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!
