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Thieves broke into the Maternal Home of Santa Marta in Cárdenas, Matanzas province, early this morning and stole the batteries from the solar panels while five pregnant women and a nurse were inside, according to citizen reporter Christian Arbolaez's post on Facebook.
The robbery occurred around 2:00 in the morning. The criminals accessed the roof of the house, broke open the metal box that housed the batteries, forced the lock, and took them away.
The expectant mothers and the nurse could hear every movement from inside, but they could do nothing: the home had no guard nor any means of communication to call for help.
The thieves also attempted to force the door of the home. Upon noticing that flashlights were being turned on from inside, they desisted and fled.
The impact on pregnant women was immediate. Several were deeply affected, and some experienced episodes of elevated blood pressure due to the stress and anxiety of those moments of uncertainty.
The police response took nearly nine hours: although the robbery occurred at 2:00 a.m., the officers arrived at the scene around 11:00 a.m.
That delay generated outrage among residents, who contrasted it with the extensive deployment of security forces that occurred on the same day in Cárdenas for the fifth anniversary of the social upheaval on July 11, 2021.
According to Arbolaez, "five patrols in front of a banner that said 'Long Live July 11', military trucks all over the city, and it took almost 10 hours for them to arrive at the maternal home."
The incident is not isolated. Just three days earlier, unidentified individuals stole the solar panels from the Maternal Home in Cárdenas, leaving the metal supports on the roof empty.
In that case, the police had also not arrived at the scene at the time of the report. On July 5, four solar panels were stolen from a water distribution point in Holguín, highlighting a pattern of energy infrastructure thefts widespread across the island.
This type of equipment has become a frequent target for crime in Cuba due to the severe electricity crisis the country is experiencing, with power outages of up to 22 hours a day.
Due to the lack of state supply, critical facilities such as maternal homes have turned to photovoltaic systems as a backup, which has driven up the value of batteries and panels in the informal market.
Maternal homes are centers of the public health system managed by the Ministry of Public Health, intended to accommodate pregnant women in situations of risk or vulnerability until the time of delivery.
That one of these centers can spend the night without a guard and without communication is, in itself, a sign of the state of neglect in which the Cuban healthcare infrastructure operates.
"How can a maternity home spend the night without supervision, leaving pregnant women exposed to a situation like this?" asked Arbolaez, who summarized what happened: "What was stolen were not just some batteries."
They also snatched away the peace from five women who were simply hoping to spend the night in a place that should have been safe.
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