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The Manzanillo-Bayamo-Havana passenger train was stranded this morning in the town of Guamo, municipality of Río Cauto, Granma province, after a problem was detected during a technical stop, which authorities are linking to a suspected criminal act related to fuel.
According to the Railway Authority in Granma province, the train departed from Bayamo at 11:20 pm on Thursday and made its technical stop in Guamo at 1:20 am today, Friday, when the electromechanical technician detected the issue that prevented the journey from continuing.
Aboard were approximately 200 children and 80 elderly people, among other passengers.
In response to the situation, the residents of Guamo acted quickly: they sought milk, water, and yogurt for the children, prepared meals —soups, fried foods, pizzas— and paid special attention to the elderly on board.
Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, First Secretary of the Communist Party in Granma, described the reaction of the locals in her Facebook post titled "Love is reciprocated with love": "They rallied and mobilized like a whirlwind to find ways and means to assist the passengers of the Manzanillo-Bayamo-Havana train."
Ortiz Barceló framed the gesture as an act of reciprocity: just nine months ago, Guamo was one of the areas most severely impacted by the hurricane Melissa, which historically overflowed the Cauto River and forced the evacuation of more than 14,000 of the municipality's 20,570 residents.
"Just nine months ago, the residents of Guamo in Río Cauto experienced one of their saddest moments after Hurricane Melissa made landfall. Assistance from the neighboring province of Las Tunas arrived without delay," the official recalled.
At the location, Miriela Pilat, First Secretary of the Party in Río Cauto, and Daniel Yero Nápoles, Mayor of the municipality, were present, along with provincial officials and representatives from the railway management in Granma, who interacted with the passengers and provided them with information.
The delay was mainly due to the need to change part of the crew and refuel the train, which finally resumed its journey to Havana at 2:30 PM this Friday.
The incident is part of a chronic pattern of the Cuban railway service, characterized by mechanical breakdowns, lack of fuel, and frequent delays. In March 2025, a train ran out of fuel in Havana and blocked traffic for hours.
In this case, however, the authorities are pointing to a more serious cause: a possible theft or sabotage of the fuel, which raises the severity of the incident.
Ortiz Barceló was emphatic on the matter: "We will wait for the results of the investigation, but if the cause was due to malice, wrongdoing, or a lack of control, it will not go unpunished and they will have to face the full weight of the law for putting the lives of so many people at risk, especially children and the elderly."
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