MIAMI, United States. – Javier Larrondo, the director of the non-governmental organization Prisoners Defenders, said this Thursday to CubaNet that the Cuban regime had sent to their death the people who died in the fire at the Matanzas Super Tanker Base, basically recruits who were doing Active Military Service.
Until this August 11, the Cuban authorities have reported that 14 people remain missing and two have died.
In addition, Larrondo criticized the government’s management of one of the worst industrial disasters in the history of Cuba.
“The Government has managed this crisis in the worst way (…). In the first place, they did not have any of the means that they should have had for a facility of this caliber,” he said, referring to the Matanzas Supertanker Base.
“They poured water on the fire, they did not have water tanks, they did not empty the fuel from the beginning, they did not throw foam because they did not have or were not prepared to throw it and they put the boys in the bucket [de contención de los tanques de combustibles]”, critical.
Larrondo denounced that the authorities have sent young recruits who were completing Active Military Service, mandatory for men on the Island, to extinguish the flames.
“They put them between the tanks to throw [agua] with hoses (…). Impossible that this little water with those flows could do anything. Well, they put him there. Also, without any experience. They were boys from the Compulsory Military Service where the most they had passed was a 15-day course of [cómo] Put out fires. They have led them to death,” he lamented.
With regard to filing a complaint against the island’s regime for the death of these young people, Larrondo indicated that it would be “complicated.”
“It is difficult to ensure that an international institution, based on international law, with the evidence that can be collected, can really issue an opinion,” he considered.
Precisely this Thursday, the regime of the Island confirmed the second fatality of the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base. This is the young firefighter Elier Correa, who was in critical condition “with burns incompatible with life.”
The 24-year-old died in the early hours of this Thursday, as announced by the Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, during the “meeting to check the actions to confront the fire.”
The Cuban government had only confirmed the death in the incident of combatant Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, who had initially been reported among the missing.
So far 130 people have received medical attention for burns and injuries, 23 of whom remain hospitalized.
The regime has not released the identity or ages of the missing firefighters. However, the complaints on social networks have gone viral after relatives of young people serving active military service indicate that they had not heard from their loved ones since they were sent to the front line to fight the flames.
The day before, the Cuban authorities reported that this Thursday the search and rescue work would begin, but at the last minute the official website Cubadebate reported that they had not yet been able to start due to poor visibility in the area.
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