The situation in Ciego de Ávila is dramatic: coffins of poor quality and only 8 of the 19 assigned hearses are working
Two workers at the city cemetery in Ciego de Ávila. / Invasor
14ymedio, Madrid, 17 February 2025 — The funeral services in Ciego de Ávila are in chaos. Broken-down hearses, poor quality coffins, a flower shortage for making wreaths, and a lack of workers for maintenance and cleaning paint a bleak picture. It’s the province’s own Director of Communal Services, Luis Alberto Pérez Olivares, who provided this information to the provincial newspaper Invasor in an article published this Monday.
One of the ‘complaints from the public’ reported by the state-run newspaper is the poor quality of the coffins. The provincial director of Communal Services defends himself by explaining that they have a factory to meet the demand of the 21 existing funeral homes and it ‘works well,’ but the same can’t be said for the raw materials.
Contracts are established with the sawmills of the Forestry Company, but the wood quality is poor. Even though they try to select the best available, they often can’t get what they need. The official laments that they used to get a type of pressed cardboard that gave the coffins more sturdiness, but they haven’t received it in years. Now, they make coffins of different shapes with durable finishes, but they can’t guarantee a better appearance, nor can they provide glass viewing panels for each one, so they only use a small square of glass at the funeral home.
Additionally, they lack staff ’due to low wages,’ which forces them to turn to carpenters and dock workers ’from the Trust Task,’ meaning inmates.
There is a lack of staff because ’the wages are very low and not attractive enough
The lack of labor is worrisome throughout the entire area. The whole province has a total of 158 workers in funeral services, who share the tasks of cleaning the facilities, refurbishing and painting, as well as grave digging and coordination.
Pérez Olivares doesn’t mince words: ’There’s a lack of staff for cleaning funeral homes, and the task has to be taken on by coordinators and drivers because, being a budgeted entity, the wages are very low and not attractive.’ He therefore calls on those with cemetery plots to visit at least once a month to maintain those areas and not neglect their upkeep.
Another issue plaguing this service is the lack of hearses. For instance, two municipalities in Ciego de Ávila, Baraguá and Venezuela, don’t have any hearses available. Most of the vehicles that should be in service are out of order in the province: 11 out of 19. Only eight are currently working, according to the official.
Another three vehicles are ’proposed for disposal,’ meaning they’ll be scrapped, while the rest are being repaired at the Comprehensive Automotive Services Company (Eisa). Only two hearses are new, received last year, says Pérez Olivares, ’but the others are old and have numerous issues.’
They considered the possibility of having two small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that have the necessary conditions take over the repair of those vehicles.
The new hearses are reserved for ’transporting the deceased to other provinces, which happens frequently due to the characteristics of the local population,’ and for foreign tourists who pass away in the northern keys.
The state-run newspaper acknowledges that in Ciego de Ávila, ’there are many obstacles to overcome when requesting funeral services.’ It recalls a recent visit to the city by the Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, where they considered having two micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that have the necessary conditions take over the repair of those vehicles that provide a highly sensitive service to the population.
However, the plan seems to be just that—a possibility. According to the director in his interview with Invasor, ’there is a command post set up at the provincial Communal Services headquarters to monitor the service and respond to the demands of the municipalities that don’t have hearses, as well as any breakdowns that occur during transport.’
All of this causes delays in the transportation of the deceased, which doesn’t seem to be resolved in the short term, although Pérez Olivares assures that one of the repaired vehicles will be assigned to Morón in the coming days.
Transportation, coffins, and labor aren’t the only things the deceased in Ciego de Ávila lack. There is also a shortage of flower wreaths, which the official blames on ’families requesting a much larger amount’ than the seven wreaths per deceased that Comcávila, the company that cultivates the gardens, can guarantee. Additionally, there is a lack of furniture in the funeral homes.
The director acknowledges that ’attending these services represents a painful moment for people’ and ’another discomfort due to quality issues should not be added to it.’
It’s not the first time that the precarious state of funeral services on the Island has made the news. From cemeteries, which get looted by bone thieves, to hearses, often crippled by fuel shortages and breakdowns.
Translated by Gustavo Loredo
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