The Ministry of the Interior of the province of Granma has still not offered an official version of the death of a man who was found this Tuesday inside a cistern in Céspedes Park, in Manzanillo.
A resident of that city informed 14ymedio that the deceased, whose name and age are unknown, lived on the streets and frequented the parish of the Capuchin friars in Manzanillo. “There he attended mass and the friars helped him financially,” he says, “and it is only known that he was the son of a city photographer.”
“It is thought that they murdered him,” he adds, “because when they took him out he was wrapped in nylon, in addition to the plastic bag that criminalistics put on him.”
The discovery of the body was recorded by several Facebook users, who recorded how the Police limited access to the park with a tape to remove the body. In the videos, several high-ranking officials from the Ministry of the Interior communicate the situation by phone while nervously skirting the water tank, near a fountain in Parque Céspedes.
“It is thought that they murdered him,” he adds, “because when they took him out he was wrapped in nylon, in addition to the plastic bag that criminalistics put on him”
Behind them a crowd gathers. The user Jose Luis Rodriguez Pena, one of those who shared images of the events, stated that the body was “decomposing”. A video of the user Michael Verdecia shows how several experts and agents extract the body, wrapped in a black bag.
In the comments to the publication, several readers expressed their doubts about the circumstances in which the event occurred. One of them warns that, if the park is always guarded by the Police, how is it possible that no one has detected the body before or how it got there.
“Another victim thanks to the blackouts,” says another, who assumes that the event took place at night. Someone else alleges that the lid of the cistern was always poorly closed, so a person could easily have fallen in there in the dark.
While the death is being clarified, both the authorities and the local press remain silent about the deceased, who, according to several comments, has already been identified by the Police.
The Ministry of the Interior usually delays announcements of this type excessively, as happened in 2019, when a body was found in similar circumstances inside the cistern of the Iván Portuondo hospital, in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa.
The deceased, who was identified as Félix Mantilla Capote, was a former worker at the center. The deposit underwent a special cleaning to eliminate contamination caused by the corpse.
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