The sister of Alexander Pantoja Bertot, the employee of the Electric Company of Santiago de Cuba whose disappearance prompted a large search operation over several days, confirmed this Monday on Facebook that her brother passed away from natural causes and that no one harmed him.
"I want to inform everyone that for our peace of mind we have just learned that my brother passed away from natural causes, no one did anything wrong to him, it just happened, and that was his destiny. God wanted it to be this way," wrote Yaima Bertot in her post, in which she also thanked those who participated in the search from the very beginning.
The message represents a significant shift from the statements that Yaima herself made days earlier, when she openly suspected that "someone did something to him and took him elsewhere," and following the discovery of the body, she even demanded that "the full weight of the law" be applied to those responsible.
Alexander Pantoja, project specialist at the Electric Company, disappeared on September 10 while inspecting the power line that supplies the Gota Blanca reservoir, in a rural area between the municipalities of Palma Soriano and Contramaestre, in eastern Cuba.
His disappearance in that mountainous and inaccessible area triggered a large-scale search operation involving more than 50 workers from the electrical sector, canine units, drones, rescuers, and police forces.
On Sunday, September 13, around 12:15 p.m., a group of park rangers located the body in an area known as El Palmar, in the municipality of Contramaestre, about 1.5 km from the main road.
The circumstances of the discovery —the body was sitting on a stone and leaning against a tree— along with the fact that his sister stated he did not suffer from known illnesses, fueled doubts about what had happened.
Cuban authorities indicated that forensic experts and specialists were investigating the causes of death and were awaiting the results of the autopsy, although no official statement with those conclusions has been released yet.
It was precisely that uncertainty that kept the family and those following the case on social media in suspense for days, until Yaima Bertot's post on Monday closed the chapter with a message of peace and acceptance.
"A million thanks again to all those who were there from the very first moment helping to find him; each and every one of you was important and played a fundamental role. We are eternally grateful, and my brother is now at his eternal rest," concluded the sister of the deceased worker.
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