- The 12-year-old boy lived on Fábrica Street in Luyanó, where dozens of neighbors gathered to show their condolences to the family.
- The provincial government maintains that it cleaned the sewers, despite evidence to the contrary
14ymedio, Havana, 25 February 2025 — Jonathan Oliva, 12 years old, was sucked into a sewer on Monday, February 24, in the Luyanó neighborhood, during the floods that occurred in Havana, and was found lifeless on Tuesday afternoon. The news was confirmed by the official reporter Lázaro Manuel Alonso, who specified that he lived on Fábrica Street, between Herrera and Santa Felicia, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre.
Heavy rains combined with poor sanitation caused sewers to collapse in several places, despite authorities claiming late in the afternoon that they had carried out “preventive work.”
Jonathan Oliva, also known as Papito, the son of Roly and Yami, was returning from school “when he found himself in the middle of a flood on his way home,” according to Radio Caribe. “Without realizing it, he was fatally sucked into the sewer. In a matter of seconds it was too late.”
Following article: 1 March 2025:
Police Guard the Tribute to the Child Who Died During the Havana Floods
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 March 2025 — The call for the farewell began to circulate on social media and WhatsApp on Thursday: “The tribute will be tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. in the Fábrica park in honor of Jonathan. Everyone needs to bring a candle or a flower to fill the staircase,” repeated the messages about the ceremony to say goodbye to Jonathan Oliva, the 12-year-old boy who drowned on Monday after being sucked into a sewer in Havana.
On Friday at the time of the gathering, dozens of teenagers and neighbors gathered in the park on Fábrica Street, in the Luyanó neighborhood, the same one where Oliva’s family lives, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre.
Some children are carrying flowers in their hands. At first there were few people with candles, because they are quite expensive, one of the residents who was in the park told this newspaper: “They cost 100 pesos each.”
Among the groups of teenagers and children, comments about the tribute were also heard: “I brought a rose. A flower for another flower,” said a girl while showing the offering to her group of friends.
The gathering did not go unnoticed by the regime, especially after the official responsibility was pointed out for their not carrying out the cleaning of the sewers in time, to avoid flooding, and for not having suspended school that day despite the warning from Civil Defense of severe local storms.
Starting at least by 4:00 p.m., several plainclothes officers and others from the motorcycle police were patrolling the park. According to what 14ymedio confirmed during its visit to the site, at least four police cars and two State Security vehicles were in the area, in addition to several security officers sitting on park benches or standing on corners.
The otherwise quiet tribute ended in the evening with teenagers lighting candles and placing flowers in Fábrica Park.
Oliva’s body was found in Havana Bay a day after he disappeared. That same Tuesday, his family held a funeral and a religious ceremony at their home, where they took the boy’s coffin.
Dozens of neighbors gathered around the house , closely watched by a strong police operation. From inside Oliva’s home, according to what 14ymedio was able to verify, cries and screams could be heard.
The buses that normally pass by the house had also been diverted and the presence of uniformed officers and State Security agents was visible in the area. “The atmosphere is quite tense, people are silent because there is a lot of pain in the neighborhood,” an elderly woman who did not know the boy personally, but who went to the family home to offer her condolences, told this newspaper.
This Friday, the pain was still palpable in the spontaneous tribute that the residents of Luyanó paid to the child.
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