Urgent reflections on child abuse in Cuba

In 2022, the Cuban government approved the Family Code, a historic reform that opened up new possibilities: diverse families, same-sex adoptions, recognition of previously ignored rights, and parenting models based on support rather than imperatives. Since then, the ruling party has celebrated the law as a legal and symbolic step toward “more inclusive and protective justice.” But three years after it came into force, it is worth asking: Does it really protect the most vulnerable? Has anything changed for children living in poverty, abandonment, domestic or institutional violence? The answer—cold, painful, and urgent—seems to be: very little. In 2025, multiple cases have come to light that highlight the harsh reality of childhood in Cuba. A case of alleged child abuse shook Bayamo this week. User Yonimiler Del Río Polo reported on Facebook that a girl had been beaten by her father, identified as Niorgel Bruzuela, who obtained custody after the mother left the country. The video accompanying the post shows the minor with visible marks on her face and recounting that she was assaulted with a belt and with his hand simply for asking for food and a soft drink. Although Del Río Polo protected the girl's identity, he released the address of the alleged abuser and urged the authorities to intervene. In an update, he stated that although the father had been arrested, the police had released him. In Holguín, a mother and her partner were arrested after a video was shared on social media showing her beating her ten-year-old daughter with a stick. In the province of Cienfuegos, three children were removed from their home after allegations of abuse, and two of them ended up in hospital with high fever and under medical supervision following state intervention. In Matanzas, the death of a two-year-old boy—the result of continuous abuse by his caregivers—shocked the country. A press release in the official newspaper Granma, reporting the arrest, calmed tempers, but Cubans still do not know the legal outcome of this child's death. Other children and adolescents remain in the custody of their abusers despite formal complaints, and some even meet their deaths, such as the latest victim of gender-based violence, a 17-year-old girl. These episodes show that violence, physical punishment, abandonment, and neglect continue to exist even after the enactment of a law that, in theory, should strengthen family and child protection mechanisms. The Cuban government has continued to protect, at least on paper. Other examples include the Code for Children, Adolescents, and Youth, approved in July 2025, and the Comprehensive Policy for the Care of Children, Adolescents, and Youth. However, the real test for any child protection law is not its wording, but its ability to prevent children from suffering violence, neglect, or abandonment, to intervene in time, and to guarantee their physical, psychological, and social well-being. Until the Cuban state and society take on these challenges with resources, commitments, and concrete actions, childhood will continue to be a terrain of vulnerability, pain, and abandonment. The Penal Code approved in 2022 established as additional penalties to the main sentence the suspension or loss of parental responsibility, the removal of guardianship, or a restraining order prohibiting contact with victims, injured parties, or other emotionally close persons in cases of domestic violence. Taken together, these are special adjustments for crimes related to this type of violence or gender-based violence. Throughout the Criminal Code, there is an increase in the penalty or autonomous crimes when the acts are committed in the context of domestic violence: injury, threats, coercion, blackmail, sexual assault, or murder, to name a few. However, the lack of official data or the government's intentional secrecy prevents us from knowing how many of these have been applied in child protection contexts. The proliferation of cases of child abuse, neglect, assault, and death reveals serious structural flaws: Lack of protocols for detecting, addressing, and following up on cases of abuse. Absence or ineffectiveness of preventive protection mechanisms: many children remain with their abusers despite documented reports. Social normalization of physical punishment as “part of parenting.” According to a UNICEF survey, four out of ten caregivers in Cuba believe that physical punishment is necessary to educate a child. This shows that an inclusive law cannot operate in a vacuum: it needs effective public policies, recognition of the problem, resources, institutional follow-up, education and, above all, a profound cultural change. It is urgent to look at the children, not the law.