The Cuban comedian Otto Ortiz reported on Monday the critical situation faced by residents of a 12-story building in Nuevo Vedado, Havana, where an electrical fault has left some of the apartments without power, elevator service, and water supply for extended periods.
In a Facebook post, Ortiz explained that it refers to the well-known "12 plants of Sugar," located at Tulipán and 45, which has been experiencing a loss of one electrical phase for several days now.
The situation causes some apartments to remain without service even when electricity returns after extensive blackouts.
"Imagine [...] being without electricity for over 20 hours, and then it suddenly comes back, but not to your apartment, due to a phase outage. That apartment will be without light for another 20 hours or more, because for it, it would no longer be 20, but 40, 60."
The lack of electricity also has a ripple effect within the building: the elevators stop working and water is not delivered, forcing residents to carry buckets up the stairs and similarly take down their waste.
"Living on a 12th floor, especially those on the 6th floor and above, has become an agony, a calvary, a cruel and undeserved punishment," lamented the comedian.
Ortiz, who began his message by stating that he usually tries to approach problems with humor, acknowledged that this time he couldn’t find a way to turn the situation into a joke.
The artist then directed his criticism towards the Electric Company and local authorities, questioning how a situation that affects so many families can persist without a definitive solution.
"One thing is the blockade, but another is the indifference and negligence towards the people," he stated.
He also questioned the role of public officials and the district delegate. In his opinion, those who hold these positions have the primary responsibility of addressing and solving the problems of the community.
"The reality is that there is no one doing anything for others, a building without light, without water, without elevators; hundreds of families, thousands of people, all trapped and without an exit," he wrote.
Ortiz recalled that among the residents there are children, elderly individuals, and people with physical and motor limitations, for whom climbing numerous flights of stairs or carrying water presents an even greater challenge.
According to what he reported, the problem wouldn't be new either. He stated that the breakdowns have become recurring and that, even after replacing the transformer, the cycle continues to repeat itself.
"And the worst part is that this has become a constant; now they change the transformer, and in a few days it explodes again, starting the cycle of collective misfortune all over again," he noted.
This time, however, Ortiz ended his statement without jokes and with a particularly pessimistic reflection on the daily reality of the island: "In the past, years ago, people thought about tomorrow; now... now it's better not to think."
Although the renowned comedian often uses his social media to make people laugh, he has also turned it into a platform to highlight the challenges of everyday life in Cuba.
In July of this year, he joked after his area received only 45 minutes of electricity following a prolonged blackout, concluding his criticism with the phrase: "Everything we are, we owe to socialism."
Months earlier, he had resorted to humor to denounce the never-ending waiting lists to buy gasoline in Havana. Ortiz then revealed that he was in 1,620th place in a queue for pesos and 15,551st in another to purchase fuel in dollars.
More recently, in August, he used satire again to draw attention to the high price of oil in Cuba, appearing with a bottle hanging around his neck as if it were a piece of jewelry meant to showcase wealth.
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