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The Embassy of Cuba in Spain confirmed this Thursday the death of Tamara Margarita Valdés as a result of the serious train accident that occurred in the province of Córdoba, a tragedy that has left dozens of victims and continues to mourn several communities in the south of the country.
In a message posted on its official Facebook account, the diplomatic mission reported that the Spanish authorities confirmed the death of the Cuban, whose body was identified on January 21. The Embassy expressed "the deepest condolences to her family and friends," without initially providing further details about her identity.
Tamara, a 50-year-old Cuban whose name did not appear in the initial official lists of deceased, lived in the municipality of Aljaraque, in the province of Huelva, one of the areas most affected by the tragedy, and was listed among the missing persons for hours following the disaster.
The accident occurred on the night of Sunday, January 18, when a high-speed train from the company Iryo, operating the Málaga–Madrid route, derailed on the outskirts of the municipality of Adamuz and invaded the opposing track, colliding with an Alvia train traveling from Madrid to Huelva. The first two units of the latter, where Tamara was, were the most affected.
During the first few hours after the crash, her husband, Ramón Montón, desperately searched for her at the information points set up near the accident site. “I spoke to her 20 minutes before. She almost missed the train,” he told the newspaper El País, amid the anguish of not having any news of her whereabouts.
Tamara had spent the weekend in Madrid reconnecting with friends she hadn't seen in over two decades. She was returning to Huelva for professional reasons, as she had a scheduled work meeting for the following morning. She was the director of a real estate branch and the mother of an 18-year-old daughter.
Her death makes Tamara the only Cuban who died in the accident, although she was not the only one affected. The Cuban Embassy had reported days earlier that at least three Cuban citizens were involved in the incident: two were discharged, and one remained hospitalized.
Among the injured is Daniela Arteaga Martínez, a 28-year-old Cuban designer who had arrived in Spain that very day after obtaining a scholarship to pursue a master's degree at the International University of Andalusia.
Daniela was also traveling on the Alvia train and was injured in one of the cars that suffered the most from the impact. She remains hospitalized in Córdoba, stable and out of danger, according to university sources.
The accident has officially resulted in 45 fatalities and more than 150 injuries, and is considered the most serious involving high-speed trains in Spain. The Spanish government has declared several days of official mourning while investigations continue to determine the causes.
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