Mailén Díaz Almaguer, the sole survivor of the Cubana de Aviación Flight 972, posted a message filled with pain and remembrance on Facebook this Monday to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the worst air disaster in Cuba in three decades.
"Had they told me at that time everything that would come afterwards, I would not have believed it; it has already been 8 years," Mailén wrote under the hashtag #ProhibidoOlvidar, accompanying her words with five photographs with her husband Jean Michel López Salinas, who passed away in the tragedy.
The accident occurred on May 18, 2018 when a Boeing 737-201 leased by Cubana de Aviación from the Mexican airline Global Air crashed just 35 seconds after taking off from José Martí International Airport bound for Holguín, falling in an agricultural area of the Boyeros municipality.
Of the 113 people on board, 112 died: 101 Cubans, six Mexican crew members, and five foreign passengers.
Mailén was 19 years old and had been married for just two months when she lost her husband and was seriously injured: she suffered the amputation of part of a leg, paralysis in both limbs, and required multiple surgeries and extensive rehabilitation.
Since then, Mailén has maintained a constant public presence, documenting her recovery, denouncing the lack of medical supplies in Cuba, and demanding justice for the victims and their families.
En febrero de 2019, en el primer aniversario de su boda, le dedicó palabras a Jean Michel: «Un año atrás fui la mujer más feliz de este mundo, que estés bien donde estás ahora. Te amo y te amaré toda mi vida».
This year's anniversary is marked by a significant judicial advancement: on March 30th, a Mexican federal judge condemned Global Air to pay 124.2 million Mexican pesos—about 7.1 million dollars—to the families of four deceased crew members, in the first definitive civil ruling of the case.
Lawyer Samuel González Ruiz stated that the airline operated the plane without proper maintenance and despite a current flight ban, and that "all maintenance records for the plane were falsified" by the company's management.
However, the payment is uncertain: Global Air is facing a bankruptcy process initiated in 2024.
This is compounded by the Cuban regime's refusal to cooperate with Mexican justice: the Prosecutor's Office has sent more than eight international letters of request without a response from the government of Havana. Spanish lawyer Carlos Villacorta Salis, representing more than 50 Cuban families and Mailén Díaz Almaguer herself, noted that the recent ruling against Global Air sets an important precedent by establishing a guideline compensation of between 1.7 and 1.8 million dollars per victim, which could serve as a possible basis for future claims.
In September 2025, Mailén began a degree in Theology at the Methodist Seminary of Havana, a new chapter in a life she has rebuilt step by step since that morning in May 2018.
On April 9th, before this date arrived, Mailén had already anticipated the weight of the anniversary: "May JUSTICE be the word that honors the upcoming May 18th after 8 years of such suffering and uncertainty."
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