Military authorities acknowledge that they do not know “the state of those who initially faced the incident”
14ymedio, Havana, 8 January 2025 – Thirteen soldiers are missing after the explosions that occurred during the early hours of Tuesday in a weapons and ammunition warehouse in Melones, in the municipality of Rafael Freyre, Holguín.
Almost 12 hours after the event happened and after long hours of rumors and uncertainty, the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces made public the information and identities of the missing. They are Major Leonar Palma Matos, Major Carlos Carreño del Río, second non-commissioned officer Orlebanis Tamé Torres, second non-commissioned officer Yoennis Pérez Durán, and soldiers Leinier Jorge Sánchez Franco, Frank Antonio Hidalgo Almaguer, Liander José García Oliva, Yunior Hernández Rojas, Rayme Rojas Rojas, Carlos Alejandro Acosta Silva, Brian Lázaro Long, José Carlos Guerrero García and Héctor Batista Adrián Zayas.
The ministerial statement says that the families were previously informed and that “throughout the day actions were developed to specify the state of those who initially faced the incident.” The explosions continued all day, complicating free access to the facilities.
The ministerial statement says that the families were previously informed and that “throughout the day actions were developed to specify the state of those who initially faced the incident”
The debate about the slowness of information was quick to take place. “We are talking about a place where until you have the certainty that another detonation will not occur, you can’t enter,” a commentator replied to the publication of the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the PCC in the province, Joel Queipo Ruiz. “I think that can be understood by anyone in the world. What we want most is to be able to go inside and find people still alive. But we can’t do anything reckless that could cause worse results.”
The Holguín Defense Council and a commission of the Ministry are analyzing the situation caused by the fire that led to the explosion. “The damage to the property is being evaluated, and the surveillance of the place continues, an effort that also includes the Ministry of the Interior and the National General Staff of Civil Defense,” says the statement.. It adds that the 361 people who reside in the vicinity of the warehouse have been evacuated.
This type of accident is not rare in military installations like the one affected yesterday. In the first hours of the event, it was even spread – even by the official press – that the damaged warehouse was the same one that in 2020 also suffered two morning explosions in Gibara, about 50 kilometers from Rafael Freyre.
In addition, in June 2017 something similar took place, this time in Santiago de Cuba, when several explosions occurred in the municipality of Songo-La Maya, near the Ti Arriba military unit.
At that time, half a thousand neighbors were evacuated for five days, without anyone giving them an explanation about the incident. There was not much damage, but the residents had to abandon their animals for several days.
Last year, three workers died in several explosions at the Empresa Militar Industrial (EMI) Ernesto Che Guevara, located in La Campana, in Manicaragua, Villa Clara. The accidents occurred when employees handled potentially dangerous explosive devices.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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