Two men were trapped under the rubble Saturday afternoon after the complete collapse of a prefabricated structure in the area that housed the former Military Unit of the municipality of Colón, in the province of Matanzas. Both were rescued alive and taken to the hospital, according to the Colón Disaster Risk Reduction Management Center through the Periódico Girón.
The collapse occurred at 6:30 PM on Saturday, July 25, when the structure completely collapsed on the people inside.
The victims are two males aged 28 and 43 years who were successfully rescued alive from the rubble of concrete and prefabricated slabs.
The risk management body specified that the accident was not due to the natural deterioration of the building, but rather the result of illegal demolition: "The incident was caused by the demolition actions carried out by a group of individuals at the site who removed the support points and load-bearing beams sustaining the slab. As a result, it weakened and collapsed, trapping two individuals who were presumably also engaged in these demolition activities without the appropriate authorization or safety measures."
Upon learning of the accident, the Colón Fire Command, the Medical Emergency System, the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Colón, MININT chiefs and officers, the Red Cross, Civil Defense, a crane from UEB Camilo Torres, the OBE, and community members rushed to the scene, the source indicated.
The images of the site show a massive cracked concrete slab, exposed metal rebar, scattered debris, and Cuban firefighters working alongside civilians and military personnel to remove the remnants of the structure.
Both injured individuals were transferred to the Mario Muñoz de Colón Hospital, where a multidisciplinary public health team conducted further examinations. The CGRRD confirmed that both are out of danger and have sustained injuries that pose no risk to their lives.
The incident at the former Military Unit is not an isolated event; rather, it is part of a pattern that is increasingly repeating in Cuba: the clandestine dismantling of abandoned buildings to extract construction materials. The housing crisis—characterized by a deficit of hundreds of thousands of homes—and the extreme shortage of cement, steel, and other supplies push many citizens to seek materials through informal means, with the deadly risks that this entails.
In the province of Matanzas itself, this phenomenon has left a trail of documented incidents. In May 2026, a man was arrested in Matanzas for tearing down blocks from an old university building. In June 2025, two individuals were arrested in Colón for stealing metal beams from a solar park under construction. And in August 2025, a collapse in Cárdenas left one person injured after the systematic theft of beams, windows, and bars that progressively weakened the structure.
Colón has also recorded other collapses in 2026 unrelated to illegal demolitions: the partial collapse of the old cafeteria El Confite on May 30 and another collapse in the historic center of Matanzas on July 18, both without injuries and attributed to structural deterioration exacerbated by the rains.
The backdrop is an unprecedented housing crisis: the regime itself acknowledged in July 2025 a deficit of more than 805,000 homes, with over 400,000 units that need to be built from scratch and nearly another 400,000 that require urgent rehabilitation.
Related videos:
Filed under: