A Spanish tourist dies and her boyfriend is seriously injured in the explosion of a luxury hotel in Havana

The Spanish Cristina López-Cerón Ugarte, 29 years old and a native of Viveiro (Lugo), died in the explosion recorded on Friday in a luxury hotel in Havana (Cuba), while her boyfriend, César Román Santalla, from the town Coruñesa de As Pontes and a year older, remains in a very serious condition after requiring surgery.

The couple was these days on vacation in Havana.

The news, which was already running this Saturday morning through the streets of Viveiro and As Pontes, where relatives and friends of the victims live, was confirmed in the early afternoon by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The event, in which 26 people have already died and fifty have been injured, occurred minutes before five o'clock on Friday afternoon, Spanish time (11:00 a.m. in Havana),

when a tanker truck delivered liquefied gas to the Saratoga hotel.

Inside the establishment there was only a team of employees, who were working on setting up the property for its reopening on May 10, after being closed for two years due to the pandemic.

As luck would have it, Cristina López-Cerón and César Román were surprised by the explosion when they were walking down the street.

The first information indicates that she died in the same place and that he was transferred to the Calixto García hospital, where he underwent surgery due to multiple trauma caused by the blast wave.

The consul has been in contact with the families of both,

.

Currently both lived in As Pontes, although she went to work every day in the municipality of Ortigueira, located 24 kilometers away, on the north coast of Galicia.

She was an employee of Abanca, where she had been working for a little over five years after passing through Caixabank.

The mayor of Viveiro, María Loureiro (PSOE), explains that she heard the news this morning, because "the rumor" was already circulating in the northern town of Lugo, and she confirmed it after two in the afternoon after asking "the Subdelegation of the Government in Lugo and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.

Loureiro comments that the fatal victim was born and raised in Viveiro, where her relatives still reside.

According to other sources, Cristina López-Cerón's father is highly regarded in the region and belongs to the team that mans the Galicia Pesca 2 coast guard helicopter, based in Celeiro (Viveiro), in charge of maritime rescue and salvage tasks in deep waters. of the Cantabrian

Graduated in Economics from the University of Santiago in 2016, Cristina was a vital worker,

Valentín González Formoso, mayor of As Pontes and leader of the PSdG-PSOE, has detailed that César Román is in a "very delicate state" after undergoing "serious surgery", although "it seems that he is out of danger".

“It is a real disgrace”, lamented the socialist, who like his companion in Viveiro speaks of “commotion” in the town.

César Román belongs to “a well-known family”, with a cousin in charge of the nursery school and a father who has already retired as a worker at the Endesa plant.

According to Formoso, some family members are already traveling to Havana.

The worst predictions have come true.

The tragedy caused by the explosion grows as the hours go by and among the 26 confirmed dead, in addition to the Spanish tourist, there are four children and a pregnant woman.

Among the fifty injured admitted to hospitals, according to the latest official report, nine are in critical condition and six are serious.

Rescue teams were still working Saturday in the wreckage of the Saratoga looking for survivors.

It is thought that some hotel workers may have been trapped in the basement of the building and the basement.

It was during the refurbishment work of the closed hotel that the accident occurred, while a tanker truck was supplying liquefied gas to the establishment and a leak blew up the storage tanks.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that it is now being investigated whether it was a human or technical error that triggered the misfortune, from which, he said, “experiences must be drawn to prevent similar events from repeating themselves.”

This is the worst tragedy of its kind that has occurred in Cuba.

Havana, and the entire island, were shocked by the terrible consequences of the explosion of the Saratoga, a luxury hotel located in the heart of the historic center, at the beginning of Paseo del Prado, in a busy tourist area, with shops and a nearby school.

The mayor of Old Havana, Alexis Acosta Silva, assured that all the children of that school, of more than 300 students, were evacuated and none were injured.

Hundreds of Havanans turned to the hospitals to donate blood in response to the information offered by television, which carried out live broadcasts throughout Friday from the place of the explosion and the health centers where the wounded were being referred.

As the hours passed, it became clear that the misfortune would be great: the material damage is enormous and 11 in the morning is a time of maximum concurrence in the area.

The explosion knocked down part of the façade and caused the collapse of several floors of the six-storey building, in such a way that dozens of people, cars and buses were buried under a mountain of rubble that in some places reached almost the height of a building floor plan.

The deflagration generated a column of smoke visible from various points of the city, and made many onlookers concentrate on the place trying to find out what had happened.

The entire hotel is now seriously at risk of collapse.

Spanish tourists Cristina López-Cerón and César Román were walking in front of the Saratoga, which is located in front of the National Capitol, when the hotel exploded.

In the hospital, the wounded pontés was visited by the Spanish ambassador, Ángel Martín Peccis, and by the consul, José Antonio Hernández Pérez-Solórzano, who personally communicated the news to his relatives and is now dealing with the repatriation of the body of Christina.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, lamented his death and the serious situation in which Román finds himself.

“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 his families and those of all the victims and injured.

Our support also to the Cuban people”, he wrote on his Twitter profile.

The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, expressed himself in similar terms.

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

At first, the Cuban government considered the possibility that it was an attack, but the president himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, dismissed it shortly after.

"It was neither a bomb nor an attack, it was an unfortunate accident," the president confirmed.

The Cuban presidency has affirmed that the families affected by the damage caused by the explosion have been transferred to "safe places while recovery actions are carried out."

“We are focused on caring for people, the relatives of the deceased and also those who are hospitalized.

The work of the health institutions and rescue and rescue teams has been immediate”, said the Cuban president.

Due to the explosion, at least 23 buildings in the area have been damaged, including 17 blocks of flats, two of them severely damaged structurally.

The five-star Saratoga hotel is practically one hundred years old, although its current stage began in December 2005, when it reopened its doors.

It has a total of 96 rooms, as stated on its website.