The search for Alexander Pantoja Bertot, an employee of the Electric Company of Santiago de Cuba, expanded this Saturday with an operation that now includes more than 50 workers, canine units, and police forces deployed in a rural area of eastern Cuba, according to an update from the state entity in a statement on social media.
Pantoja Bertot disappeared on Thursday, September 10 while inspecting the power line that supplies the Gota Blanca reservoir, located on the borders of the municipalities of Palma Soriano and Contramaestre, in an area that includes the communities of La Aduana, Juan Barón, Arroyo Blanco de Aguacate, Haití Chiquito, and Las Cruces.
On Friday, the search efforts included teams of electrical workers from the municipalities of Palma, Contramaestre, and Tercer Frente, along with a canine unit, forces from the National Revolutionary Police, the rescue and salvage brigade, and local farmers who volunteered to assist.
This Saturday, the operation was strengthened with the addition of 50 electrical workers from the municipality of Santiago de Cuba and the canine brigade from the municipality of Mella, according to the company’s own report on its social media.
The coordination of the work is under the responsibility of the MININT Delegate in Palma, while executives from the company remain in the area alongside Alexander's wife and family.
In its statement published this Saturday, the company made an appeal to the public: "Any information regarding their whereabouts, or about anyone who may have seen them since the time of their disappearance, no matter how trivial it may seem, can be of great importance. We urge you to communicate it immediately to the authorities or to their family."
Yaima Bertot, Alexander's sister, also turned to social media to ask for help and express her gratitude for the collective effort: “Thank you so much to all those people who are putting in all their effort and energy to find my brother. We sincerely hope you do not lose that positive energy and that God gives you strength and clarity to find my brother's whereabouts. We are all waiting for him at home.”
The disappearance of Pantoja Bertot occurs in a particularly tragic month for workers in the Cuban electric sector.
In early September, the lineman Edisvey Rolando Pérez Rodríguez, 32 years old, died from electrocution in Guanabacoa, Havana, while performing repairs on a transformer.
This past Saturday, it was reported that another lineman lost his life due to electrocution in Juraguá, Cienfuegos, during the construction of a line for the Solar Park, while his colleague was hospitalized in serious condition.
Cuba lacks an official alert system for missing persons, forcing families to turn to social media to mobilize the public.
According to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information for 2025, that year there were 664 work-related accidents in the country, resulting in 38 fatalities, with the Electricity, Gas, and Water sector accounting for five of those deaths.
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