While Cuba’s communist Castro dictatorship devotes resources to building luxury hotels for foreign tourists, Havana is crumbing due to criminal neglect, with building collapses becoming an almost daily occurrence. The Cuban regime blames U.S. sanctions and claims it doesn’t have the money to maintain or repair the many dilapidated buildings in Havana that have become death traps for regular Cubans. However, it seems to have the cash to build luxury high-rise hotels for foreign tourists, which generates hard currency for the dictatorship. This is socialism in action.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
Building collapse in Old Havana leaves two injured and more people homeless
“Havana is falling apart, but nothing is done, but it’s more important to build hotels that are completely empty,” Cubans complain on social media.
Just one week after the deadly collapse on Lamparilla Street in Old Havana, another building collapse in that municipality of the Cuban capital left two injured on Wednesday.
According to the Facebook page of the Government of Havana, the incident occurred at 178 San Isidro Street, between Compostela and Habana.
According to the official statement, the event occurred after 8:00 AM when the side wall of a building fell onto the fiber-cement roof of an adjacent dwelling, causing the collapse of that lightweight cover and endangering the lives of its inhabitants.
Havana officials assured that residents of the affected residence received non-life-threatening injuries, although they were treated at the Antonio Guiteras polyclinic before being referred and transferred to the Calixto García Hospital.
The statement does not mention the impact of the collapse on the building that lost its side wall, neither does it indicate if there were people living in that other property.
In the comments section of the post, numerous residents of Havana expressed their frustration with the housing situation in Havana and the frequent collapses that occur without the authorities fully addressing the problem with solutions that prevent further deaths.
Rosa María Santana stated: “I wanted to give my opinion, but honestly, I lose the desire, and the disillusionment is incredible when I read that building collapses continue. It’s as if they don’t have an indicator warning that the deterioration is so great that these phenomena will continue. It’s so horrifying to hear that external blockade hinders the thinking of some, because there are situations where the remedy is here inside, where external factors do not inhibit thinking and the desire to do better things for our people […] Let’s do and talk less, demagogy cannot be the path to addressing our problems.”
To these words, Yudi Ramos added: “Havana is falling apart, but nothing is done. It’s more important to build hotels that are completely empty and unfortunately, it’s the innocent who pay.”
Meanwhile, Elida Bueno Sánchez commented: “We are breaking records in collapses. It’s good that they inform, but what is being done to prevent these things from happening? I haven’t read anywhere that there is a plan on the part of those involved or responsible organizations to prevent further deaths due to collapses in Havana. How sad!”
Equally sad is the fate of the survivors of such incidents. This same week, it was reported that the affected families of the collapse that occurred on October 3rd in Old Havana have been placed in the state-owned Cubatabaco facility in terrible conditions and under warning from authorities not to give statements to the independent press.
The 13 families from 388 Lamparilla Street have thus joined the hundreds of victims of collapses who still lack the promised housing solution from the government. Many of these people have been staying in shelters in deplorable conditions for decades.