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As the hours pass and despair grows around the fate of the 13 missing Cubans following the explosions that occurred early Tuesday morning at a military warehouse in the Melones community, in the municipality of Rafael Freyre, Holguín, curiosity also increases regarding those involved in the tragedy.
The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) reported the names and military ranks of those involved, summarized as four officers and nine "soldiers."
The MINFAR omitted the ages and did not specify that the soldiers are actually recruits from the Active Military Service (SMA).
The digital portal 14yMedio set out to create a collage featuring the faces of 12 of the 13 individuals involved in the incident, people for whom family, friends, and many other Cubans continue to pray, despite the increasingly narrowing circle of hope.
The stories begin to emerge through the testimonies of their relatives and the fragments of their biographies shared on social media.
Several of them are nearing the completion of their Military Service, and most are residents of localities near the Melones base or from other municipalities in Holguín.
However, some have criticized the initiative to reveal the identities of those involved in the incident, going so far as to label it "disrespectful."
"It is unethical and disrespectful to post on social media, without the consent of family members, photos of the missing young people", stated the official communicator Lisandra Martín.
In the comments section of the post, some agreed with his point of view, while others deemed the treatment given to the missing individuals by the official Cuban press to be much more disrespectful, as they are virtually erased from the informational landscape.
Many of those photos have been published by the family members themselves. They have even given interviews today to independent media [...] I still say that if those who are supposed to do their job don't do it, then someone else will! With the secrecy claiming to show respect, sorrow, and blah blah blah, it simply leaves room for other journalists to do the work that those who should be doing it are not allowed to.," replied lawyer Manuel Viera.
"Since when is it considered morbid to say who the missing persons are and to put up a photo? Morbidity would be placing a photo of a corpse, a nude photo, etc... around the world, they tell you who has disappeared or died and show you the photo [...] and I repeat, the photos that are on social media have been published by the families themselves so that their loved ones are not forgotten; social media does not create photos on its own!" he concluded.
Meanwhile, on social media, family members and close friends continue to keep alive the hope of finding them alive.
Yunior Hernández Rojas, known as "Yunito" by his family and friends, is from Holguín and loves playing soccer in his neighborhood.
Brian Lázaro Rojas Long, residing in the Esterito community in the municipality of Banes, is eight months away from completing his Military Service and has been assigned to work at a hotel in the Ramón de Antilla peninsula as a chef's assistant, a profession he is passionate about.
Like them, Liander José García Oliva from Rafael Freyre has family and friends connected on social media expressing messages of hope.
Relatives of two of the nine missing young men in the explosions explained, in statements to CubaNet, the difficult hours that the families of the affected are enduring.
“We are very sad and desperate. They tell us that we have to wait for them to call us when they have new information. This is very hard,” said a relative of José Carlos Guerrero García, one of the missing persons, originally from Banes and just 19 years old.
“We are being told that search efforts are ongoing and we are holding onto faith for a miracle, but what we know for sure is that there are many casualties due to the magnitude of the explosions, and it seems that they were inside the establishment,” a cousin of Rayme Rojas Rojas also disclosed to the cited media on the condition of anonymity.
A Rayme Rojas Rojas, 20 years old, only had six months left to complete his Military Service and return home.
"He was counting the days because he was almost finished with the two years he had to serve," added the source.
Complicated situation in the ground zero of the explosions
However, the situation at the military ammunition warehouse located in Melones, in the municipality of Rafael Freyre, Holguín, remains precarious, as explosions have continued to occur, making it difficult to access ground zero and, consequently, to search for the missing.
Thus, indicated the official communicator herself, Lisandra Martín, in her Facebook profile. According to Martín - who noted the update time as 8:00 p.m. this Wednesday - the most recent explosion up to that moment had occurred at 3 p.m. on January 8th.
He specified that the temperature, according to the thermographic measurements taken at that time, exceeded 300 degrees.
"Today, at 4:00 PM, each of the families of the missing was informed that the chances of their loved ones being alive are almost zero. Specialists assure that there are few possibilities of survival," he noted.
Meanwhile, a report from the Television News and a article from Granma, focused almost exclusively on the developments of evacuations of residents in the area, but omitted any references to the missing, as well as the progress of efforts to access ground zero of the tragedy.
The Granma article specified that Alexis Deiggs Gómez, president of the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, was injured by a shard of glass from the first major explosion that occurred at the Military Unit.
He recounted that, along with the head of the Eastern Army, Division General Eugenio Rabilero Aguilera, and the other members of the Municipal Defense Council, they had reached the vicinity of a burning silo, where the military leader was explaining the magnitude of the danger threatening the nearby residents and the need for a swift evacuation, when the shockwave from the explosion hit them all, throwing them to the ground amid a cloud of particles, dirt, and dust flying in every direction.
The MINFAR continues to provide no information regarding the progress of the rescue efforts for the possible victims.
At the same time, the population repeatedly erupts in outrage across various forums due to the national official press's indifference towards the fate of potential victims.
The missing "soldiers" are Leinier Jorge Sánchez Franco; Frank Antonio Hidalgo Almaguer; Liander José García Oliva; Yunior Hernández Rojas; Rayme Rojas Rojas; Carlos Alejandro Acosta Silva; Brian Lázaro Rojas Long; José Carlos Guerrero García; and Héctor Adrián Batista Zayas.
The missing military personnel are Major Leonar Palma Matos and Major Carlos Carreño del Rio, as well as Second Sergeants Orlebanis Tamé Torres and Yoennis Pérez Durán.
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