Teenager is stabbed for defending the Ladies in White

Posted on Monday, 12.03.12

Teenager is stabbed for defending the Ladies in White

Berenice Héctor González, 15, was injured in the Nov. 4 incident. The
attacker was identified as the 19-year-old daughter of a police captain.
By Juan Carlos Chavez
jcchavez@elnuevoherald.com

A 15-year-old teenager who came out in defense of the Ladies in White in
the Cuban city of Cienfuegos was brutally stabbed by a young woman of
19. The aggressor has not been detained. She is the daughter of a
political police captain, dissident sources reported.

The attacked took place on Nov. 4, according to information that Berta
Soler, a leader of the female group, gave El Nuevo Herald. The victim
was attacked after she demanded that the attacker stop insulting her
family and the Ladies in White.

"We are dismayed by this attack and, above all, by the lack of response
from the authorities," Soler said in a phone interview from Havana. "We
are demanding justice here."

The teenager's name is Berenice Héctor González. She is the niece of
Lady in White Belkis Felicia Jorrín Morfa. The attacker was identified
as Dailiana Planchez Torres.

"This started when I heard her refer to the Ladies in White as shameless
prostitutes," Berenice told El Nuevo Herald. "I told her that I didn't
like what she was saying because four of my relatives, four women, are
in that group."

Due to the seriousness of the wounds, doctors at Gustavo Aldereguía Lima
hospital operated on the teenager for at least four hours and applied
more than 66 stitches, Soler said.

The teenager ended up with a dozen wounds in her body and trunk, her
legs and her arms. She also has a deep wound in the chest and another
serious one in her shoulder. She had to be treated as an emergency and
was transferred to an intensive-care unit.

Despite the seriousness of the case and the fact that the teenager will
need weeks to recover physically and psychologically, the hospital
decided to release her 24 hours after the surgery. Furthermore, it
refused to give the family a medical certificate with the details of the
patient's wounds and the medical procedure performed, said Jorrín.
Instead it sent a report to the police for them to take charge of the
demands of the affected family.

The report's content described the wounds that Berenice suffered as "minor."

Several phone calls to the police station in the central province of
Cienfuegos were not answered.

Jorrín said that Planchez was consistently defaming the Ladies in White.
She said her niece confronted the situation saying that she would not
allow under any circumstances insults against the mothers and wives of
political prisoners.

The teenager said that the attack occurred at about 8 p.m. She said that
she was talking on the phone when Planchez appeared suddenly with a
switchblade and attacked her on the face. She then also stabbed her on
the neck, "almost affecting her vocal chords," the family said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/03/3125637/teenager-is-stabbed-for-defending.html