Almost a week after one of the most exclusive hotels in Havana, Cuba, was devastated by an explosion that left at least
45 dead and a hundred wounded
, the rulers of the communist island decreed a national mourning on Thursday, amid criticism for not having done it before and complaints for arresting those who transmitted the explosion from their cell phones.
The announcement of the duel, which will last less than two days starting this Friday, came while the official press announced that rescuers found the body of a hotel worker in the rubble, the last person reported missing.
Another 17 victims continue to be admitted to hospitals in Havana, while more than a dozen families continue to be evacuated after the explosion that affected more than 20 buildings near the hotel located in Old Havana, the most touristic area of the capital.
The Cuban authorities have not concluded the investigations into the causes of the deadly explosion, which they attribute to "an accident caused by a gas leak."
Rescue teams with the help of heavy machinery remove debris from the site of a deadly explosion that damaged the Hotel Saratoga in Havana, on Friday, May 6, 2022. Ramon Espinosa / AP
The detonation destroyed 80% of the historic five-star property where celebrities such as Madonna, Rihanna and Beyonce have stayed, as well as high-ranking foreign government officials.
The hotel is operated by the Cuban military conglomerate GAESA.
Dozens of Cubans had spent days demanding a national mourning from the rulers on social networks for the explosion
that claimed the lives of children and pregnant women.
“Why hasn't a national duel been decreed in #Cuba yet?
The question worries thousands of citizens on this Island who we see with pain how the number of deaths in the explosion of the Saratoga hotel continues to grow as the hours go by,” opposition journalist Yoani Sánchez tweeted a day after the detonation.
A rescuer walks near the destroyed five-star Hotel Saratoga after searching through the rubble following a deadly explosion in Old Havana, Cuba, on May 10, 2022.AP
This weekend, two days after the Saratoga events, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel — successor to the Castro brothers — met in Havana on a visit that It culminated with a controversial banquet and a concert at the Palace of the Revolution, while rescuers worked among the rubble of the hotel.
After the meeting, both leaders announced a million-dollar contract to send 500 Cuban doctors to work in Mexico in a health mission, one of the most lucrative economic lines for Havana.
Promote Cuba as a "safe destination"
The explosion occurred while Cuba was celebrating the International Tourism Fair, with which the island sought to reactivate this important source of income, after the drop in travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic and a stark shortage of foreign currency.
In a hasty announcement that some interpreted as an attempt to reaffirm Cuba as a "safe tourist destination," Díaz-Canel ruled out that the explosion was the product of terrorism, just hours after it took place.
"It was not a bomb or an attack, it is an unfortunate accident," said the Cuban leader on Twitter.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (left), together with the Cuban leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, during the visit of the Mexican president to Havana on May 8, 2022. AP
A 29-year-old Spanish tourist died in the rubble and her partner has been hospitalized since Thursday.
Foreign visitors were not staying at the hotel, as it was closed for renovations and was to reopen to the public on May 10.
[“I want to start a normal life”: a Cuban crosses the Rio Grande with only one leg and portrays the drama of the exodus]
Cuban experts believe that Cuba has devoted too many resources to tourism investments in the last two years, especially with the brutal drop in travelers during the pandemic.
“It would seem rational to pause hotel investment.
There are other priorities,” tweeted Cuban economist Pedro Monreal on Thursday, who estimates that since 2020 the island has invested 1.473 million dollars in hotels.
More than 1,452,000 homes in Cuba are in fair or poor condition, according to official figures for 2021. The housing deficit on the island is portrayed in the numerous families whose houses collapsed and who wait in state shelters and shelters years ago for the construction of new homes.
Arrested for transmitting the explosion
Cuba has dealt with the explosion in the Saratoga with belated information —the first reports on national television came about two hours later—, internet outages and arrests of those who filmed the event.
Ángel Cuza, 35, told Noticias Telemundo that two hours after making a live broadcast from the hotel, which was shared thousands of times on social networks, the political police arrested him near there and kept him private for four days. freedom in State Security facilities.
"I was at a friend's house and a State Security bus looked for me," he told Noticias Telemundo by telephone from Havana.
In his live broadcast, one of the first to publicize the event, Cuza said on several occasions that he was an activist for human rights in Cuba.
"These trials are a circus": they fear very severe penalties against those detained for the protests in Cuba
Jan. 18, 202201:48
"When they released me, they told me that I was under house arrest, that I couldn't leave unless I went to see a doctor. If I didn't comply, they told me that they could take a more severe measure, which I think would be to go to prison," he assured.
With him was Pedro Quiala, 31, who was also arrested in the same house shortly after also broadcasting the first images of the explosion, before an apparent internet outage, reported by dozens of users, interrupted him.
"In an interrogation I was accused of misrepresenting what had happened (in the hotel)
," Quiala, who was released by the political police a day later, said by phone.
With the timid expansion of Internet access over the last decade, Cuba has seen a resurgence of citizen journalism and more and more people use their cell phones to document a reality that the official media do not usually portray.
The independent press of the state media is illegal in Cuba and, frequently, those who exercise it denounce fines, arrests and police harassment.
"The regime quickly takes away the internet from the people so that ordinary Cubans do not give the information to the world," says Quiala.
"The official media came to give the news (from Saratoga) on the 1:00 pm newscast, when several hours had passed and the people were innocent of what was happening."
Noticias Telemundo contacted the Cuban International Press Center to find out Havana's position on these accusations, but did not receive an immediate response.
[“They took my son away from me and they took away my fear”: Cuba keeps 14 minors in prison for protesting against the regime]
The Saratoga hotel is located a few meters from the Capitol, the seat of the Communist Parliament.
According to official sources, it had been remodeled and repaired for the last time in 2005.
The property, which Cuban authorities have said they are not yet sure if it is "salvable," had 96 rooms, two bars, two restaurants and a spa, according to its website.