Santiago de Cuba is hosting a regional workshop on protection against natural phenomena since Thursday, organized by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) together with the Cuban Red Cross, in a province that has the highest seismic risk in the country.
The event, called the Regional Participatory Workshop on Safe Housing Awareness (PASS), aims to train specialists and communities in the use of tools to detect vulnerabilities, reduce housing risks, and promote more resilient constructions in the face of emergencies.
Aris Arias Batalla, Operations and Relief Officer of the Red Cross in Santiago de Cuba, explained that "the goal is to prepare participants in the use of participatory tools that help identify vulnerabilities, reduce housing risks, and promote safer construction practices."
The sessions address the analysis of the built environment, community diagnosis, the planning of safe habitats, and the preventive management of risks, with the communities themselves as the main actors in the preparation and response actions, said the official.
The choice of Santiago de Cuba is due to a geographically high-risk reality: the province is located in one of the most seismically hazardous areas of Cuba, near the Oriente fault—also known as the Bartlett-Caimán fault—at the boundary between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates.
Eastern Cuba accounts for about 70% of the country's seismic activity, and Santiago de Cuba experiences between 10 and 15 perceptible earthquakes each year.
What happened in 2026 illustrates the urgency of the workshop: a magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook eastern Cuba in March and generated more than 160 aftershocks within 24 hours, preceded in February by an event of magnitude 5.6 that was felt in Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and Granma.
The most recent occurred on August 21, just six days before the workshop: the National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS) reported a magnitude 3.6 earthquake 31 kilometers southeast of the city, with no damage or casualties.
The CENAIS, based specifically in Santiago de Cuba, is the institution responsible for monitoring tectonic activity and studying seismic hazards throughout Cuba.
The housing vulnerability worsens the situation. In November 2024, moderate earthquakes affected 234 homes just in Santiago de Cuba and over 2,000 across the entire eastern region, highlighting the structural deterioration that has accumulated over decades in the housing stock of the area.
The PASS methodology, developed by the IFRC with support from the British Red Cross and launched in 2011, operates through eight participatory activities ranging from community mapping to change planning and solution monitoring.
The initiative is also part of the response to climate change. According to the organizers, the workshop aims to "strengthen the capabilities of Red Cross personnel to support populations located in areas exposed to natural hazards, through awareness-raising processes that promote solutions tailored to the effects of climate change."
The Oriente fault, according to Directive 1 of 2022 from the National Defense Council, can generate earthquakes of up to magnitude 8 with effects exceeding VIII on the European macroseismic intensity scale, making community preparedness a structural necessity for Eastern Cuba.
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