A video of less than a minute is enough to showcase the state of ruin in which the Sala Polivalente de San José de las Lajas is located, in the province of Mayabeque, a facility that was considered the first multifunctional hall in Latin America and that today languishes amid rubble and neglect.
The material was published by the content creator José Raúl Díaz Barrios on his channel "El Canal de JotaR," and it has accumulated over 18,000 views on Facebook. In it, the author explores the installation and describes it bluntly: "Friends, you are about to discover the ruins of what was once a great event for Latin America."
The hall was inaugurated on June 28, 1981, for the XIV International Boxing Tournament "Giraldo Córdova Cardín," with a construction cost of 1.8 million pesos. During its first decades, it was the venue for top-level national and international sporting events, as well as concerts, theatrical productions, and circus shows.
The history of the venue is extraordinary. As Díaz Barrios narrates in the video, the Morenas del Caribe—the women’s volleyball team that won the Olympic three-peat in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, and Sydney 2000—conducted part of their training there in preparation for international competitions.
The creator also noted that in that hall, Javier Sotomayor first broke the two-meter barrier in high jump, and it was the setting for the first fight between the Cuban boxer Armando Martínez "Armandito" —Olympic champion in Moscow 1980— and the Canadian Shawn O'Sullivan.
In addition, on their courts, volleyball stars such as Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons played, double Olympic champions with the United States in Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988.
The contrast between that past and the present is devastating. Already in 2014, a local report indicated that around 85% of the facility was destroyed, and Radio Camoa reported that it had been out of use for more than 10 years.
Despite everything, the Multi-Purpose Hall remains a landmark for local sports: young athletes train there and provincial championships are held. Recovery projects mentioned by the radio station would include a rehabilitation room, a gym, and a museum room, although so far they have not gone beyond the planning stage.
The deterioration of this facility is not an isolated case, but part of a pattern that repeats throughout the Cuban sports network. More than half of the sports areas in the country were in poor condition, according to data from 2023, a direct consequence of decades of lack of investment and maintenance by the regime.
In Mayabeque, neglect also affects other facilities. The Puerto Escondido camping area in Santa Cruz del Norte was reported to be in total ruin this year, and sports schools and playgrounds in the province are in a similar situation.
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