A resident of Bayamo approached the entrance of the city this week, in front of the Hotel Sierra Maestra, intending to take a photograph next to the sign that marked the access to the capital of Granma, and found the space empty. The moment was captured in a video posted on the Facebook page "El Quijote Bayamés", which garnered nearly 9,700 views.
"I was going to take a picture here where it said Bayamo, but I see that... I don’t know what happened," the video's author recounts in front of the site where the welcome sign to the city used to stand.
A known individual identified as Robertico confirmed what was already evident: "No, they took the sign."
The author of the video emphasized that it wasn't just any sign, but a solid construction: "What do you mean the sign? There was no sign there. That was made of cement, cement blocks, look."
The only explanation circulating in the area was that the structure was removed "for repairs," a version that the author himself dismissed with skepticism: "You see, I don't believe it."
The disappearance of the sign adds to a pattern of urban deterioration that Bayamo has been experiencing throughout 2026. In August, a woman fell into an open well in the middle of the street and had to be taken to the hospital on an electric scooter due to the lack of ambulances; at that time, the city had only 17 active units out of the 54 required.
In April, garbage and debris blocked a railway crossing in Bayamo, and in the following months, there were reports of unsanitary conditions and flooding due to poor drainage.
The episode also takes place in a context marked by the theft and disappearance of public infrastructure elements in various locations throughout Cuba, amid the economic crisis and the rising value of certain materials in the informal market. In March, a police operation in Guantánamo dismantled a network that was stealing traffic signs and storing the metal supports to resell them, resulting in at least two arrests.
In Holguín, the theft of 180 meters of cable left areas without water for two months due to the shutdown of a pumping station. And in mid-August, two individuals were caught attempting to steal aluminum pipes from the railing of the Matanzas Viaduct.
The page "El Quijote Bayamés" had previously documented the impact of the crisis in the city: in June, it went viral with a video of a conga in horse-drawn carriages that received over 75,000 views, which the creator accompanied with a phrase that summed up the situation: “A people fleeing from the blackout has nothing else to do”.
Bayamo, declared a National Monument for its heritage and historical value, thus loses another element of its urban image, without the authorities providing any official explanation regarding the whereabouts of the structure.
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