The official vigil in the Parque de la Fraternidad for the victims of the explosion at the Saratoga hotel took place this Friday night between reminders of the 46 who died in the accident on May 6 and a strong police operation that reached several blocks to the round.
The event, convened by the Union of Young Communists, brought together state employees and students from various educational centers, mostly from the Cerro, Old Havana, Plaza de la Revolución and Centro Habana municipalities. The calls to go with black clothes and flowers were sent through instant messaging in work centers and schools.
The authorities closed off vehicle traffic on Calle Reina from the corner of Calle Belascoaín hours before the vigil began. Other avenues such as Monte and Paseo del Prado also had some restrictions on the circulation of cars, which worsened urban transport in a city with serious mobility problems.
The authorities closed the traffic of vehicles on Reina street from the corner with Belascoaín hours before the vigil began
The El Curita park, located a few meters from the Saratoga hotel, was the concentration point for dozens of workers and members of official organizations. In the place several tables were also set up for the sale of candles, at ten pesos each, and flowers at two for five.
“Only one candle per person is sold, it is the orientation,” a vendor explained to several buyers who approached. The product, highly demanded due to the frequent power outages in recent weeks, has disappeared from state stores and is scarce on the informal market.
A moment of tension occurred when a tanker truck from the state company Cupet passed near the meeting, the same one that had a gas pipe involved in the hotel explosion. The vehicle crossed a street near the Parque de la Fraternidad and caused fearful phrases to be heard among the crowd and some even retraced their steps.
On each corner, the operation of uniformed police and military was visible from several blocks away. The presence of State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes and mixed with the participants was also evident.
Nearby, the employees of the General Customs of the Republic – who were also taken to the place of the vigil by bus – took several selfies. The arrival of world record holder Javier Sotomayor, likewise, generated a sequence of requests to achieve an image with the high jump champion.
The general tone of the vigil was closer to a May 1 parade than a memorial to deceased people. Several of the participants commented to 14ymedio who had been scheduled at their study or work center to arrive at 5:00 pm, two hours before the start of the event.
In the central part of the Park, some relatives of the victims of the explosion and official officials were located. In front of the hotel, but several meters away due to the dangers that the structure still represents, images of the fatal victims were placed next to which their relatives placed flowers, many of them with eyes full of tears.
In the vicinity, the containment tapes still mark the area around the hotel that passers-by cannot access and the incomplete structure of a building that until a little over a week ago meant luxury not tragedy.
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