The procession was led by several motorized police officers and a patrol car
14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2024 — Between the sounds of sobs and conga, a crowd accompanied the funeral procession on Thursday afternoon of the three dockworkers who died on Wednesday in the cargo port of Santiago de Cuba, after inhaling toxic gases: Raicol Calzado Kindelán, Yosbani Paaterson Duany and Roibel Bejerano Hernández. The young men were buried in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, one of the best known on the Island and the largest in the East.
In the absence of information from the official press, the information about the funeral has been offered by an independent journalist living in Washington, Yosmany Mayeta. A video shared by the reporter shows a massive walk along Martí Avenue, on the way to Patria Avenue, where one of the entrances to Santa Ifigenia is located, as the journalist explained.
Port staff were also allowed to attend the procession
The hearses were led by several motorized police officers and a patrol car. According to Mayeta, port staff were also allowed to attend the procession.
“Some family members have written to me because they do not feel ‘convinced’ after hearing the explanation offered by the Party and the port authorities,” the reporter said in a post on his social networks, and affirmed that he will interview port workers, as well as relatives of the three dockworkers.
As reported yesterday by the General Director of the Eastern Port Services Company, José Antonio Olivarez Díaz, during the process of unloading rice from a ship, the deceased entered a sealed and fumigated warehouse, not intended for unloading, where they inhaled a “ toxic gas.” Both the first aid teams and their colleagues tried to help them to no avail, the official press stated. Their bodies were then transferred to the Doctor Joaquín Castillo Duany military hospital.
Both the first aid teams and their colleagues tried to help them to no avail.
Mayeta also provided more information about the young people on his social networks. In the case of Calzado Kindelán, he had two children, one of whom lived with him and his wife. The young man, age 29, lived in the José Martí District.
Yosbani Patterson Duany, age 28, lived in Reparto Los Olmos, near Parque Los Muñequitos. No further details are known about Rudi Bejerano Hernández – a resident of the El Castillito neighborhood.
This Wednesday, the official newspaper Sierra Maestra announced a huge operational deployment for the arrival at several ports on the Island of a “large ship with 30,000 tons of rice,” whose destination was 12 warehouses spread across different provinces.
The cargo ship first arrived in Havana, where it unloaded part of the contents, and later headed to Nuevitas, in Camagüey, to leave 11,000 tons of rice. Her next move was to Santiago de Cuba, where the plan was to deliver 10,000 tons for the province and its neighbor Guantánamo.
This morning, the Asela , with the Panamanian flag, is the only cargo ship that appears docked in the port of Santiago, so it is potentially this ship that the deceased dockworkers were going to unload.
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