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The facade of a building located on Jagüey Street, between Padre Pico and Escudero, in the heart of Santiago de Cuba, collapsed completely on Wednesday night onto the public road, with no injuries reported but creating an additional electrical hazard for the residents in the area.
The collapse did not catch the residents of the area by surprise. According to testimonies collected by the independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, the wall had been showing clear signs of deterioration for days and had been reported repeatedly to the authorities without receiving any effective response. "They have been reporting that wall for days," recounted an angry neighbor.
The collapse occurred at night when foot traffic was low, which prevented a major tragedy. During the day, the area—located behind the Teatro Oriente—experiences a high flow of people, including children and elderly individuals.
The collapse of the structure affected the electrical wiring in the area, increasing the risk for residents. Specialized forces from the electricity company, rescue and salvage technicians from the Fire Brigade of Command 4 Vista Alegre, and other municipal authorities were present at the scene.
The Operations and Relief Officer at MINSAP Aris Arias Batalla had previously documented the dilapidated condition of the façade and warned about the danger it posed.
"It looks like a cardboard facade or a set from the ICRT or Hollywood, but unfortunately, it isn't," he wrote before the collapse, warning that its fall could endanger the lives of passersby of all ages.
Arias Batalla also pointed out that just a few meters away, there is another equally alarming case: a balcony and facade on Santo Tomás Street, at the corner of Callejón Carmen and Enramadas, behind the Imperial hotel, which has been in a state of neglect for over 60 years. "A case that has lasted more than 60 years, and there it stands as a symbol of abandonment, deterioration, and misunderstanding," he denounced.
The incident is part of a structural housing crisis that has plagued Santiago de Cuba for decades. The city is burdened by over 6,000 cases of damaged housing unresolved since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The hurricane Melissa, which struck in October 2025, further worsened the situation by damaging over 106,500 homes in the province. Five months after its impact, only 17% of those homes had been repaired: just 18,400 units out of a devastating total.
In April of this year, the wall of the Church of Our Lady of the Forsaken in Santiago also experienced a partial collapse, putting at risk an image of the Virgin located over 10 meters high. In February, neighbors from the El Salao neighborhood reported the deterioration of stairs in a building that had been reported multiple times without resolution.
Cuba records approximately 1,000 collapsed buildings nationwide each year, with Santiago among the most affected provinces. In light of this pattern of institutional neglect, Mayeta Labrada posed a question that reflects public outrage: “Do we have to wait for someone to die for action to be taken?”
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