Havana/The Linner Cleivi Pujada Castro lost his life last Friday while doing repair work in a circuit of the Baracoa beach substation, in Bauta, province of Artemis. The worker of the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) died after coming into contact with a high voltage line, according to the testimony of a colleague who disseminated what happened.
“Yesterday a fatal accident happened in which my partner and brother Cleivi Pujada Castro lost his life. I feel surprised because he was always a very strict man with security measures,” his partner Alden Daniel García wrote on Facebook. According to his story, Pujada Castro made contact with a 7,800 volt line, discharge that caused death.
The news of the death has revived the complaints about the precarious conditions under which the employees of the electricity sector work, subject to deficiencies that, together with the deterioration of the network, increase the risk of accidents.
It is not an isolated case. Earlier this month, the Linler Osmani Hernández Madroza, 35, He suffered serious burns When he repaired a breakdown in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana. The electric guard specialist made contact with a party driver, which left him consideration injuries in both arms.
That event joined an incident chain that shows no signs of decreasing
That event joined an incident chain that shows no signs of decreasing.
In this same September Carlos Rafael López Ibarra also died, Turbine operator of the Antonio Maceo Thermoelectric Central (Renté) in Santiago de Cuba. The 33 -year -old man could not survive the serious burns suffered a week before during the repair of a steam pipe in unit 5 of the plant. A leak caused injuries that, according to unofficial sources, reached 89% of their body. “With deep pain we communicate the irreparable loss of our partner … we transmit our deepest condolences in the name of the Directorate of the Electric Union and of all its workers,” said the state company.
Similar cases have marked recent years. In March 2024, Leonel Carroso Machín died, liner of the Havana electricity company, after falling from a post in Boyeros. Although he was transferred to a hospital to be operated, he did not survive.
That same year, in October, a fire in the Turkish pinna Belgin Sultan, anchored in the Bay of Havana, left eight injured: three Cubans and five Turkish employees of Karpowership. Days later, foreign workers Halil Karadeniz and Fuat Türkyilmaz died at the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital because of the wounds.
Each accident that comes to public light intensifies criticism towards UNE for the risk conditions in which its employees work, with insufficient or non -existent protection equipment. A year ago, the company itself shared images of workers removing ashes inside a boiler without gloves, Nasobucos or glasses, which reinforced the perception that high accidents is not a coincidence.
Official statistics confirm the seriousness of the insecurity situation in labor environments: in 2024, 52 Cubans died in their work center, that is, one per week. Although the total number of accidents decreased from 1,498 in 2023 to 934 in 2024, the death index per thousand injured shot from 33.7 in 2023 to 53.3 in 2024, an increase close to 60%.
