The members of the Cuban Parliament who are elected on March 26 will not be able to avoid the sight, right in front of the National Capitol, of the ruins of the Saratoga hotel. Havanans, on the other hand, are already accustomed to contemplating the structure of the building that exploded on May 6, 2022, that killed 47 peopleand that today evokes a puny house of cards.
The last floor is the only thing that survives, like a grotesque reminder of what the Saratoga once was, now surrounded by red zinc sheets. But the old hotel is barely the center of gravity of the collapse: the neighboring residential building, the protagonist of some of the most dramatic photos of the incident, continues to look like an empty doll’s house.
A comparison between the first photographs of the building, after the explosion, and the panorama that any passerby can see today, shows that the building has been systematically looted not only by its former residents, but also by thieves and passers-by. Where before there was a painting, a piece of furniture or an appliance, now only the stark wall remains.
Where before there was a painting, a piece of furniture or an appliance, now only the stark wall remains
Several sections of the structure, survivors of the explosion, have been removed by the builders or have fallen under their own weight. However, the atmosphere is not that of a sector under repair, but that of another building that has been abandoned to its fate.
The residents who used to live in the Prado 609 building, attached to the hotel, were relocated in the precarious Havana street of Vives, between Carmen and Figures. The tragedy, for them, has been twofold: in addition to losing their houses, the ones the government offered them not only lack charm but were made of cast concrete in one of the most “conflictive” areas of the capital.
“The Saratoga has no plans of what to do there yet. They are not going to demolish it completely, only what is necessary and stabilize the structure. The planned time is 8 or 10 months,” he told 14ymedio last December one of the residents of the area.
The company to which the Government commissioned the works is Almesta real estate company of the Armed Forces, and an unknown French company, although everything seems to indicate that it is the French construction company Bouygues, which has already worked on the construction of 22 luxury hotels on the Island.
If something is clear, it is that the fate of the Saratoga is linked to that of the adjoining buildings, among which is also a Baptist temple. Apparently, the Cuban government has not yet decided on the move that will resolve the construction of one of the most central blocks of Havana.
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