A new collapse rocked the Malecón in Havana this Wednesday, captured on video and shared on social media by the communicator Magdiel Jorge Castro. The footage shows a thick cloud of dust, debris on the sidewalk and roadway, and buildings with visible structural damage on one of the most iconic avenues in Cuba.
The video of the collapse at the Malecón in Havana shows the avenue nearly empty, deteriorated walls covered in graffiti, and dust suspended in the air following the collapse. "Not a single bomb has fallen... this is the destruction of communism," Jorge Castro wrote while sharing the images.
At the time of publication, there were no official reports of confirmed victims or injuries.
The Cuban government also did not make a public statement regarding the incident.
The video generated comments from Cubans who are already accustomed to collapses happening at any point in the city.
"What Malecon and San Lázaro are like has survived the war without actually experiencing it; those buildings would collapse with just a little breeze," noted a user.
"The surprising thing is that there are still buildings standing!" "And they still say they are prepared for a war," and "It looks like a ghost town," were other opinions.
"A city so beautiful falling apart," asserted another internet user.
The collapse is not an isolated incident. According to official figures recognized in April, around 1,000 buildings in Havana collapse each year. By the end of 2025, there were 185,348 properties in poor condition in the capital, of which 46,158 required major renovations.
The crisis has a concrete human cost: in 2025, collapses in Havana resulted in at least six deaths, including four on July 12 of that year, among them a seven-year-old girl.
El Malecón has a history of collapses that repeats itself without any state response. In April 2021, two colonial buildings on the avenue collapsed, causing serious injuries to a passerby.
Months later, in July of that year, residents of the building at Malecón #31 - located on the same block as the luxurious Hotel Paseo del Prado, managed by the French chain Accor - reported that the structure was falling apart with families still living inside.
"This building is Malecón #31, on the same block as the new Paseo del Prado hotel: on one corner is the very nice hotel, and on the other is this crumbling building. Every day a piece falls off, and there are still people living inside who have nowhere to go. They live in fear of being crushed at any moment, and no one does anything," said resident Yenlis Labañino.
In 2026 so far, collapses have occurred without pause: two collapses in less than 24 hours in Old Havana in January, the collapse of the old ISDI building in Central Havana in February, and a collapsed staircase in Boyeros in May.
The regime's response contrasts with the urgency of the crisis.
Just three days before the collapse on the Malecón, the government published a draft of a new Housing Law that, instead of committing to the urgent repair of the housing stock, strengthens state control over abandoned properties and creates mechanisms for the state to reclaim dilapidated homes.
The Argentine journalist Carolina Amoroso, after filming her documentary about Cuba, summarized the situation with a powerful image: "Havana, at times, resembles a postcard of a place at war."
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