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This Wednesday marks the four-year anniversary of the explosion that partially destroyed the Hotel Saratoga in Havana, a tragedy that resulted in at least 47 deaths, over 99 injuries, and dozens of displaced families, for which the Cuban regime has never provided a public account.
On May 6, 2022, at 10:50 in the morning, a tanker truck supplying liquefied gas to the hotel—closed since 2020 due to the pandemic and in the process of reopening—triggered an explosion that collapsed the building’s façade and caused significant damage to surrounding properties. Cuban authorities attributed the disaster to a "gas leak," without ever presenting a complete official report or a formal list of those condemned.
Among the 47 deceased were four minors, a pregnant woman, and 23 employees of the hotel itself. The explosion affected the homes of 95 Cubans, with 38 properties sustaining direct damage, and 22 families from the building located at Prado 609, adjacent to the hotel, were relocated to the Villa Panamericana.
Among the foreign victims was the Spanish tourist Cristina López-Cerón Ugarte, 29, originally from Viveiro (Lugo), who was walking in front of the hotel when the shockwave hit her. Her boyfriend, César Román Santalla, was seriously injured and was operated on at the Calixto García hospital. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Cristina’s death the following day, and President Pedro Sánchez publicly expressed his condolences. Spain placed a floral tribute in front of the hotel days later as a sign of mourning.
Four years later, impunity is the regime's response. Cuban media reported in 2023—without any public judicial details or official confirmation—that some officials might have been sanctioned for their responsibility in the tragedy, but there was no public trial, no transparent sentences, and no formal accountability to the families. There is no known mechanism for financial compensation for the relatives of the deceased, the injured, or the displaced neighbors.
The Cuban Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, remains in his position without facing any repercussions from this tragedy. The then-director of the Cuba-Petroleum Union (CUPET), Juan Torres Naranjo, who was responsible for the supply of liquefied gas, was replaced in August 2022 following the fire at the supertanker base in Matanzas, but was promoted to deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM). His position was filled by Néstor Pérez Franco, previously the deputy director of CUPET.
Miguel Díaz-Canel and Manuel Marrero Cruz promised investigations and clarification of the events, but nothing came of their promises or their governmental responsibilities. In July of that same year (2022), General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja mysteriously passed away; he was the head of the conglomerate of military enterprises that control, among many other sources of foreign currency, the hotels and tourism in Cuba, the giant Grupo de Administración de Empresas S.A. (GAESA).
In contrast, reports from independent media indicated that Adel de la Torre Hernández, a young rescuer and volunteer who assisted after the explosion, was sentenced to 7 years in prison, not for the accident, but for his alleged involvement in the protests of July 11, 2021.
Institutional abandonment has been documented. In April 2024, nearly two years after the tragedy, a mother reported that her son's body had still not been correctly identified, preventing her from completing the mourning process.
The building Prado 609 was demolished in May 2023. The government promised in October of that year that rehabilitation was a "priority" and that residents could return by August 2025. However, the families of the building adjacent to the Saratoga still have no answers: by May 2025, work had barely begun at the foundation phase.
The families sent letters to the Government of Havana, to the National Assembly of People's Power, and to GAESA. GAESA's response was that the case "did not concern them." The other entities did not provide a formal response. Many of those displaced have emigrated due to the lack of solutions.
Meanwhile, the new Hotel Saratoga is making progress in its reconstruction without any public clarification on who is financing the works or under what conditions, in a country where institutional opacity turns every tragedy into a state matter without recognized victims or named responsible parties.
Four years after the explosion, the list of victims from the Saratoga remains the only visible record of a disaster that the Cuban regime prefers to bury along with its dead.
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