The inhabitants of the Luyanó neighborhood in Havana have been without funeral services for two and a half years. Complaints have already begun to materialize in posts and comments on social media. However, with its doors closed and an empty portal, the funeral home remains abandoned and without hope of resuming its functions.
“The deceased are sent to San Miguel del Padrón or La Víbora,” a neighbor assures this newspaper who witnesses how often someone passes by the premises to ask about the restart of services.
“Since the pandemic began, it was said that they would no longer be accepting deceased. But the pandemic is over and the funeral home is still completely closed,” he laments.
In funeral homes in other neighborhoods of the capital, the situation is very reminiscent of the times when sanitary restrictions prevented more than two people from attending a burial. The explanation?: the transport crisis. “It is very difficult to go to the funeral in a funeral home that is not the one in your neighborhood, if you do not have anything to go to. People are very limited, especially if they are older people. Now everyone has to settle for offering their condolences to the family, while the mourners are left practically alone in the living room with the deceased”.
In funeral homes in other neighborhoods of the capital, the situation is very reminiscent of the times when sanitary restrictions prevented more than two people from attending a burial
A Facebook post by a group of Luyanó residents questioned the measure of keeping watch over the deceased in other centers, when the neighborhood has its own funeral home. “It always has a different problem. When the bathrooms are not covered, leaks appear; it must be repaired, painted or the cafeteria has no water. It’s all a lie,” commented an enraged user.
“It is our funeral home, where we have always watched over our relatives, friends and all our people from Luyan. Why can’t we have this funeral service available?” lamented another Internet user.
This is not the first time that the population has complained about the lack of funeral services on the Island. From corpses that must wait hours –sometimes days– for a hearse to transport them, to the shortage of coffins to bury them, the bureaucracy of death in Cuba becomes more and more suffocating for those who have to deal with it.
In the province of Sancti Spíritus, the construction of a crematorium has been expected for at least two years. With an investment of just 5 million pesos, the project could ease the burden of relatives who transport their deceased to Ciego de Ávila or Villa Clara to comply with their wishes to be cremated.
However, so far the project has seen two location changes, several complaints from architects and no facility built.
“It is an advanced technology that will have two gas burners: one in the lower part, which is where the first cremation of the deceased is carried out, and a second located in the tower where the gases that can rise into the atmosphere are burned. , so only steam comes out”, assured the newspaper Escambray Yoel Aquiles Martínez, director of the Provincial Unit of Necrological Services of the province.
Now everyone has to settle for offering their condolences to the family, while the mourners are left practically alone in the living room with the deceased.
The crematorium would also provide incineration services for medical and biological waste derived from hospital care, such as surgical remains and chemical and biological products. The managers do not say, however, what has been the fate of this waste so far
The facility, initially projected to be built in an area chosen by specialists and architects on the border with Jatibonico, is now planned to be built 300 meters from the La Rosita residential area, because this would reduce construction costs.
Although the director of Public Health in the province has already authorized the new location, this has been denied by the Hygiene area, which alleges that the expulsion of toxic gases derived from the crematorium processes could harm the health of the residents of the area. .
While Sancti Spíritus remains one of the four Cuban provinces that lacks a crematorium, the institutions are extending the deadlines with their internal confrontations. However, the ruling party points once again to the blocking as the culprit.
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