Santiago – Havana
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The brutal explosion that occurred on Friday at the luxurious Saratoga hotel in Havana took the lives of at least 32 people. Among the victims is the Spanish Cristina López-Cerón Ugartea young woman from the Galician municipality of Viveiro (Lugo), who was on vacation in the country.
According to sources close to the municipality, the boyfriend of this young woman would also be seriously injured, Cesar Roman Santalla, who was with her near the hotel establishment at the time of the explosion that caused the partial collapse of the building, and whose shock wave reached them. He and his partner, born in 1993, are residents of the A Coruña council of As Pontes, where they both lived. According to him mayor of the town, Valentín González Formosothe young man “is in serious condition, although out of danger.”
In fact, he “had already undergone surgery” due to injuries sustained in the explosion. Some members of the family traveled to Havana this Saturday “to be close to their relative and to do” the paperwork, Formoso explained. “They are well-known neighbors in our town,” he said, “although she was from Viveiro, they had been living here for years.” Formoso conveyed his “absolute solidarity with all the victims” of this “misfortune.”
The news surprised the mayor of As Pontes, when, as general secretary of the PSdeG, he was at a meeting of his party’s national committee when the tragedy was known. Sources from the mayor’s environment informed ABC that they are in direct contact with both the Foreign Ministry, which was the one who confirmed the death of Cristina López yesterday morning, and with the relatives of the two young people.
The president of Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, also echoed the news and conveyed his solidarity to the relatives of the Spanish couple and all the deceased through his Twitter account. “All our love for their families and those of all the victims and injured. Our support also to the Cuban people. The President of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Until a few days ago, president of the Xunta de Galicia, he also sent his condolences to the family.
Tragic news reaches us from Cuba. A Spanish tourist has died and another Spanish citizen is seriously injured after the explosion of the Saratoga hotel.
All our love for their families and those of all the victims and injured. Our support also to the Cuban people.
– Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) May 7, 2022
Initially, the Cuban Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos Garcia Grandehad assured that there were no foreign citizens among the dozens of injured or among the deceased that were initially reported.
According to figures published by the Cuban media ’14ymedio’, in addition to the 32 deaths, including four children and a pregnant woman, 56 were injured this Saturday. Of the more than 50 hospitalized, twenty are in serious or critical condition. Most of the injured and deceased were residents of Havana, downtown workers and citizens who were circulating near the place at the time of the incident.
Gas leak
Although the details of the explosion are not known, the authorities have assured that it was due to a possible gas leak when a liquefied gas bullet was enabled in the hotel. Alexis Silva, mayor of Old Havana, assured the official media ‘Cubadebate’, that the cook had smelled gas, checked the connections and discovered a crack in the supply hose. “That was what caused the explosion. The hotel was closed and only service workers were inside, “said Acosta Silva. After two years without activity due to the pandemic, the establishment planned to open on May 10.
In statements to the independent media ‘Cubanet’, the Cuban architect Vladimir Calderon Frias He pointed out that the tragedy occurred because the gas supply was carried out inside the building, which represented a great risk. «Eusebio Leal (deceased Historian of Havana, in charge of a large part of the restoration of historical sites) was always told that one of the dangerous situations was to put a gas canister inside the building. That bullet was inside one of the technical floors of the building. And, really, that is a bomb, ”explained Calderón Frías.
The explosion not only damaged the hotel building but surrounding buildings as a primary school (with almost 400 students), a Baptist temple and the Yoruba Association of Cuba. The shock wave also affected the National Capitol, seat of the Cuban Parliament, where there were glass breakages.
For Calderón, all this demonstrates the immense risk involved in the construction of hotels for tourism in areas such as Old Havana.
www.abc.es
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism