Slingshot attacks during blackouts in Holguín: police fail to act
Young people are launching metal rod fragments with slingshots at residents sitting on house porches during nighttime blackouts in Holguín. Police have taken no action, according to social media complaints.
Metal projectiles in the darkness: Holguín residents denounce slingshot attacks
A Holguín resident alerted Facebook users about a violent practice that repeats during nighttime blackouts: groups of young people launch metal rod fragments with slingshots at people sitting on the porches of their homes. According to cibercuba.com, the complaint was published by Leoncio Emilio Magariño Ajo, who reported that one of these projectiles struck inside his own house.
"At night and during blackouts, young people dedicate themselves to launching pieces of metal rods with slingshots at people sitting on the porches to cool off because of the heat," wrote Magariño Ajo in his post.
The complainant described the moment when his eldest son had just entered the home when he heard a loud impact. The projectile had struck the Motorina—an electric motorcycle—parked inside. "Imagine if this hit a child or any person," he warned.
The photographs published alongside the complaint show a small metal fragment of approximately one or two centimetres, dark and showing signs of oxidation, consistent with a piece of cut steel or iron.
Electricity crisis as the backdrop
The complaint coincides with an extreme electrical crisis in the province. On Thursday, the Fray Benito circuit had accumulated 12 hours and 37 minutes of outage, while Holguín Mir exceeded 10 hours without service, with the province's electricity supply meeting barely 60 MW. This prolonged darkness makes nights a conducive environment for violence.
Magariño Ajo pointed out that police have taken no action in response to the situation, an omission that, according to the complainant, is repeated in multiple provinces across the country.
A pattern of attacks that is not new
Projectile attacks in the province have documented precedents. In September 2025, a train from Santiago de Cuba was stoned between the localities of Cristino Naranjo and Fuente, in Holguín, and a stone pierced the window of a carriage without causing injuries. That same year, in July, similar incidents were recorded against the Havana-Holguín train and the Havana-Bayamo train.
Police inaction documented in various provinces
The omission denounced by Magariño Ajo fits a broader pattern recorded during 2026. In Santiago de Cuba, a family waited more than ten hours for the arrival of the National Revolutionary Police after reporting a theft; the officers justified the delay by citing a shift change. In another case in that same city, officers took three days to respond to the theft of a portable power station and conducted no investigation.
In June 2026, authorities in Guantánamo arrested 11 members of three gangs accused of at least nine crimes. The assaults occurred at night and the suspects were mostly young people with no employment ties, a profile that matches the one described in the Holguín complaint.
Sustained increase in crime
The Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit reported 2,833 crimes in 2025, an increase of 115% compared to the previous year, with robberies being the predominant category. In September 2026, 11 violent deaths were recorded across the country, according to recently published data.
Source: Google News CU — Crime