“Those children were ordered to be killed because the correct thing to do is to evacuate immediately” in the face of the risk of explosion
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguin, 25 January 2025 — Of the Cuban Army arsenal that exploded in Melones, Holguin, on January 7, only a few structures remain standing. The shock wave and the fire consumed everything, from the barracks to the war material whose detonation caused the death of 13 soldiers, nine of them young recruits. The conclusion is clear: “Protocols were violated there.”
Speaking is a retired captain of the Armed Forces, interviewed on condition of anonymity by 14ymedio. His assessment of the case, as a former officer and in charge of weaponry in an Eastern Army unit, is that Melones is one of the most costly recent episodes of negligence for the Cuban people.
“The officers who lost their lives there knew the risk they were running; the soldiers did not,” the military man assures, categorically. “They knew what kind of military equipment was in there and how highly explosive it was.”
When the captain refers to “in there,” he refers to the labyrinth of underground tunnels that the arsenal consisted of. Cubans, accustomed to suspecting that “the mountains are hollow” due to the work and grace of the Army, cannot imagine the attention and resources that have been devoted to the construction of those warehouses, always adjacent to military units, which this newspaper’s source now describes in great detail.
The door of the Melones tunnels, and those of all the magazines in Cuba, are huge
“The door of the Melones tunnels, and those of all the magazines in Cuba, are huge,” he says. “It’s a big cement arch, an entrance where you can fit up to two war tanks, side by side. The doors are made of a special material, a mixture of lead, sand, iron and concrete.”
In Cuban military jargon, this combination of construction materials has a name that is reminiscent of the most thrilling years of the Cold War: the “anti-atomic league.”
The Melones tragedy took place in this scenario. Explosions screams, commands – negligent and carelessly issued in the heat of the moment, the captain says – and the recruits operating without understanding the caliber of the equipment. “Those kids were ordered to die,” he insists. “The correct protocol is immediate evacuation.”
“The Armed Forces have specialists in weaponry and explosives control, they even have technical forces trained in firefighting. They are what people call ’FAR firefighters,’” he explains. “People were not supposed to go in there, and the order that should have been given was to evacuate the facility and notify the right authorities.”
“Those tunnels were hermetically sealed. When there is a fire, if you open the mouth of the tunnel, you are oxygenating the fire.”
The military staff did just the opposite. “Those tunnels were hermetically sealed. When there is a fire, if you open the mouth of the tunnel – that huge, heavy door – you are oxygenating the fire. They opened the mouth of the tunnel and went in carelessly.” According to some of his former colleagues who were aware of other details of the explosion, with whom he has discussed the case, toxic gases were already coming out of the Melones tunnel.
“They went in there and then the oxygen fueled the flames,” he continues. “There were two soldiers who tried to get in. One came out coughing, asphyxiated by the fumes and smoke. The other was the one who didn’t want to go in and said he would rather go to prison than die. A few minutes later, the tunnels exploded”.
The case is reminiscent of the 2020 explosion in the military unit of La Púa, in the town of Velasco -just 50 kilometers from Melones. What exploded then was also an ammunition warehouse “in poor condition.” Silos with bullets, rifles, various types of machinery. The mushroom of yellowish smoke that rose over the arsenal, photographed by the villagers, was almost identical to that of Melones.
The big difference, the former officer stresses, was that in La Púa the 1,245 inhabitants of the village were evacuated quickly and that, as the official note on the explosion stated, “there was no loss of human lives.” Besides, “that unit had less explosive material than the magazine of Melones.”
The Ministry of the Armed Forces will keep secret how much equipment exploded in Melones and what operation was being carried out there
There are other recent cases, all similar, that point to the obsoleteness of the equipment stored in the subway magazines of the Armed Forces. Almost everything dates back to the Soviet era when Fidel Castro intended to arm the country to the teeth. In 2017, a silo exploded in Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba; in 2011, an ammunition depot exploded in Boyeros, Havana; in 2000, another warehouse blew up 20 kilometers from Matanzas.
Cubans know that, despite the death of the 13 soldiers, the Ministry of the Armed Forces will keep secret how much equipment exploded in Melones and exactly what operation was being carried out in the unit before the incident. “There are still sporadic explosions there,” confirms the former captain interviewed by 14ymedio.
“The government will never admit it, but there was negligence,” he insists. “There would have been material damage, of course, but all those lives could have been saved. Not one would have been lost.”
Translated by LAR
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