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FROM
CUBA
The “face slasher,” real threat or rumor?
HAVANA, Cuba – March 6 (Leonel Pérez Belette / www.cubanet.org) – Seeking to get a handle on rumors that a “face slasher” is on the prowl in certain districts of the city, government authorities have issued an explanatory note that is being read in the neighborhood Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
The note stresses that most of the information available so far is rumor and that the news have been magnified out of proportion.
The note is also the only word from the government so far on the subject, since none of the official media outlets have mentioned the incident.
According to the note, there has only been one attack by the person who became known as the face slasher and who remains unidentified and unapprehended. The note adds that two other potential victims managed to escape the man, and that all the incidents happened in one day, February 9, in the Arroyo Naranjo and Boyeros neighborhoods of Havana.
The perpetrator, according to the note, is a dark-skinned man about 35 to 40, who uses a modified machete.
Word in the street is the man goes for the face of his victims, thus the name, and that he has struck several times, claiming up to four victims. There is even a story about a man who was beat by a crowd who decided he might be the slasher.
Even though the government press doesn't usually report any crimes, perhaps following the official line that there is no crime in the streets in Cuba, people have lately grown used to the idea that there is an increase in crime.
Stories abound about people and even foreign tourists being held up, about someone being murdered in the Vedado district, about a car being stolen from right in front of the Interior Ministry, and with no news from radio, TV, or newspapers, people feel free to transmit the stories and believe them or not.
Versión
original en español
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