The endless story: Coffin is transported in a passenger truck in Santiago de Cuba

A Cuban resident in the townEl Caney, in Santiago de Cuba, reported that due to the lack of a hearse to transport the mortal remains of his great-grandmother, they had to resort to a private van.

"They had to bury her at 8:30 in the morning. They called and said that the car left with another deceased person."The woman complained in statements to Yosmany Mayeta, who said that they barely gave her that answer and hung up on her.

"Yesterday she was transported here in a rented van, and now it seems it will be the same.We don't know where we are going to end up in this country with so much negligence," said the relative of the deceased elderly woman.

Several hours later, the funeral home rented a private passenger car to remove the coffin and take it to the cemetery, which is a few kilometers away.

A video released by the aforementioned communicator showed an increasingly recurring scene throughout the country:a coffin being transported in any type of vehicle except a hearse.

The images released showed how after the coffin was placed on the floor of the van, the relatives and mourners also sat inside the vehicle, taking advantage of the fact that it was a passenger transport vehicle.

In May 2023, José Borrero Sotomayor, provincial director of Community Services, in statements to the official newspaperSierra Maestracame out against “ill-intentioned rumors that swarm the street” anddenied the bidding for funeral services “to the new non-state economic forms”, the well-known MSMEs.

“Funeral services continue to be subsidized by the State. The fee is charged as regulated by Resolution: interprovincial transfers have a price of 4.00 pesos per kilometers traveled, cremation 340 pesos, exhumation 156 and floral arrangements - wreaths and bouquets - in accordance with the request of the mourner., the official then assured.

Something that, judging by the aforementioned experience of the El Caney family, is not true.

According to the director, the province of Santiago de Cuba had only ten hearses last year, which was insufficient for a province of more than a million inhabitants and half of them residents in the main municipality.