Three days after having declared the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base extinguished, the Cuban Government continues without the names of the disappearedthe exact levels of contamination that caused the incident or the cost of the disaster, unprecedented in the history of the Island.
In its latest report, the Ministry of Public Health raised the number of injured again, without any explanation, to 132of which 20 are still in hospitals: four critical, five serious and 11 with “care report”.
The minister of the branch, José Ángel Portal Miranda, signed this Sunday a statement which reports that “the multidisciplinary team of specialists continues its work” at the epicenter of the incident. Part of that team, he says, “was dedicated to studying the fragments of bone remains found in the laboratories”, after which the remains of “four different people” were identified.
The speed and roundness of this information contrasts with what Jorge González Pérez himself declared, who is in charge of the investigation of the remains in Matanzas and who 25 years ago led the team that determined the dubious identification of Ernest’s bones Che Guevara.
The Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, declared this Sunday that the health of the air is being “monitored”
In an interview with Canal Caribeand although he speaks of “the remains that we have found”, the forensic doctor admits that they have not yet been able to locate the place where the “14 victims” disappeared, which he calculates may last “two more days at the most”, and considers it “unlikely ” that “there is some laboratory test, for example DNA” that can be carried out in this case.
Regarding the environmental consequences of the fire, the local press indicates that “it is evaluated”, without giving specific data. Along the same lines, the Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, declared this Sunday that the health of the air is being “monitored in each of the most vulnerable places, such as the northern coast of the provinces of Matanzas, Mayabeque, Havana and some points in Artemisa” and that “the impacts on the soil, water and biodiversity are being investigated.”
The main covers of the official media they keep turning in the “heroism” of the firefighters and the “brotherhood” of the countries that sent aid, Mexico and Venezuela.
“Why did I have to trust your word (as always), when I found out about the Supertankers and I called you like crazy and you told me in that audio ‘mommy, calm down, they’re not going to take us out, the airport can’t be be alone'”
It is still the relatives of the disappeared youth who provide information, again through social networks. Vivianne Pérez de Prado, mother of Leo Alejandro Doval, published this Sunday a heartbreaking letter addressed to his “little boy with the soul of an old man”, lamenting: “A week ago today they ripped you out of my life”.
In the text, the woman, devastated, cries out: “Why did I have to listen to you? Why did I have to trust your word (as always), when I found out about the Supertankers and I called you like a crazy person and you told me in that audio ‘mommy, calm down, they’re not going to take us out, the airport can’t be left alone'”.
Leo Alejandro Doval, like several of the disappeared, were young men who were completing their Military Service at the Fire Department number 3 of the Juan Gualberto Gómez airport in Varadero.
“I know that you did not tell me that you would go to the place because you know that I would not allow it. You know that at any time I would go looking for you and by the hair I would get you out of that truck,” the woman concludes. “You are not a firefighter nor would you be, you were just passing the Military Service, you are a doctor and that is how you would save lives. You are my eternal neurosurgeon.”
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