The 61-year-old man was located this Thursday in the town of Soplillar, weakened by exhaustion and lack of sleep and food.
MADRID, Spain. -Carlos Santiesteban García, a 61-year-old man residing in the Ciénaga de Zapata municipality, was found alive this Thursday after remaining missing for more than 40 hours in a forested area of the territory.
The information was confirmed by the Municipal Assembly of Popular Power (AMPP) in Ciénaga de Zapata, which reported on its official Facebook page that the discovery occurred around 10:00 in the morning, after an intense search operation that lasted two nights and one day.
According to the institutional publication, Santiesteban García had suddenly disappeared since the afternoon of Tuesday, December 9, with no information available on his whereabouts until the time of his location. It was found in the town of Soplillar, more than five kilometers east of Pálpite, by the resident Ulises López Martín, who discovered it in his farm and immediately notified the municipal authorities.
In statements cited by the AMPP, the delegate of District 11, Rosa Amelia Gómez Niebla, explained that the man reported having lost his way and having wandered disoriented through the forest for more than 40 hours, without sleeping or eating, also exposed to the constant presence of mosquitoes. According to the official, “fortunately, he is in good physical condition, although weakened by exhaustion, and lack of sleep and food.”
On December 10, the Municipal Assembly itself had reported on the man’s disappearance, which occurred around 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. In that first notice it was stated that he was wearing “shorts and a pair of tennis shoes, both blue, and a gray shirt over his shoulders,” and that a party of 15 men was deployed in search of him.
Although the disappearance of Carlos Santiesteban García had a favorable outcome, not all cases registered in the country end in the same way. In recent years, various disappearances They have left families in uncertainty in different provinces of Cuba.
One of the oldest cases is that of Amarilis Muñiz Navarrete, a nine-year-old girl who disappeared on April 14, 1979 in the Banes municipality, in Holguín. The minor went out to the bakery accompanied by other girls and did not return home. Despite searches carried out by neighbors and relatives in the neighborhood, the river and nearby areas, she was never located. Decades later, the case remains unsolved and the file was closed without conclusions.
The existence of numerous unsolved cases highlights the persistent limitations in the investigation mechanisms, as well as the deficiencies in institutional coordination and support for the families of missing persons.
