A cloud of dust emerged this Monday from the rubble located next to the demolished Saratoga hotel in Havana. The building located in the 609 Prado Street –which also suffered damage from the explosion that occurred on May 6, 2022, which claimed the lives of 47 people– was beginning to be demolished with heavy machinery.
The arm of a huge demolition forceps, red in color, broke the walls and columns of the building with its large pincers. The pieces of concrete fell to the ground in pieces, while the curious – outside the security perimeter, marked by a red tape – crowded into the Parque de la Fraternidad.
It did not go unnoticed by the people of Havana that a similar machine, if not the same one, had starred in the demolition of the Moscow restaurant, in March 2022, located in the heart of Vedado.
Nor did they forget that, after the collapse On April 7, at the chimney of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, in Matanzas, the authorities sent a similar tool, used in the “remodeling” of the Saratoga, to “break the wall” and rescue workers suffocated by soot. However, of the four workers waiting for rescue, only two survived.
The residents of Prado 609, interviewed last February by 14ymedio, were already aware of the government’s plans to demolish the building
The residents of Prado 609, interviewed last February by 14ymedioThey were already aware of the government’s plans to demolish the building and, as promised, build new homes for them. This was not the case with the victims of another building, located on Zulueta street, whose inhabitants were relocated to houses made of cast concrete, on the “conflictive” Vives street.
Now the cloud of dust, which exceeds the red zinc fence that prevents walkers from passing, is reminiscent of the day of the explosion. After the accident, of which the Government has not published the conclusions of the investigation, the property, Prado 609, began to be ransacked, not because otherwise it would not be ransacked but rather by recovering their belongings, by thieves who made off with any object, from furniture to food.
Almest, the real estate company of the Armed Forces in charge of the works, must work on the reconstruction of the building with a French company whose name the Government did not reveal, although everything seems to indicate that it was Bouygues, which has already worked in some twenty hotels in Cuba.
One year after the explosion in one of the most central blocks of Havana –located, moreover, in front of the National Capitol– the affected buildings are still awaiting major repair.
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