43 Now Dead From Saratoga Hotel Disaster

 

    By this morning -- May 11th, 2022 -- the death toll has reached 43 in Friday morning's {May 6th} explosion at the famed Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana, a mere block from the capital building. Many vehicles and 96 homes close to the Saratoga were also affected or destroyed.

     Since May 6th rescue workers like these have toiled tirelessly among the ruins of the Saratoga Hotel. The two exhausted young men shown in this AFP-Yamil LAGE photo above were only taking a brief rest-break today.

    The Saratoga Hotel was originally built in the 1930s but, because it was important to tourism in the heart of Havana, it was rebuilt in 2005 as a 5-star hotel. In April and May in 2022 it was being refurbished and scheduled to reopen this week on Tuesday, May 10th. When the explosion occurred on Friday morning, May 6th, most of the 43 deaths were therefore workers.

    As of today -- Wednesday, May 11th-2022 -- three of the 51 workers are still unaccounted for and believed to be buried beneath the debris of the Saratoga Hotel...so the death toll of 43 is expected to keep rising. Dozens of people remain hospitalized and dozens of Cubans have been relocated because their nearby homes were destroyed or affected.

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US Loves The Blockade, Hates Cuba Families

 

    This is Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador shown at a news conference today -- May 10th, 2022. He is the President of Mexico, the huge & influential nation on the southern border of the United States. Lopez Obrador is leading the international fight to end the U. S. Embargo/Blockade of Cuba. He calls it: "An abomination and a criminal act that has existed for over six decades. In the last few years, taking advantage of the Pandemic, the Trump and Biden leaderships in Washington have greatly expanded the torment for Cuban families to satisfy a few rich U. S. Cubans. The U. S. media and another generation of Americans are shameful for allowing this to exist."

    Next month -- June of 2022 -- the U. S. in Los Angeles will host the Summit of the Americas. Today -- May 10th, 2022 -- President Lopez Obrador said he will not attend the event if Cuba and two of its friends, Nicaragua and Venezuela, "are excluded." He said: "If a few Cuban enemies in the U. S. can continue, year after year, to dictate the giant U. S. democracy in this criminal way, is the U. S. still the world's most notable democracy? I have my doubts now...and I just returned from Cuba where the Cuban people are reeling from the Blockade, and coping with a massive and deadly explosion in the center of their capital city while, of course, coping with the pandemic and the blockade."

    The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is the bravest leader in the world that has the guts to call out the United States for what he calls" "It's Miami-obsessed Cuban policies that make a few people rich while tormenting every family in the much poorer, much weaker nation of Cuba."

    Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are friends and they visit each other's capital cities. Lopez Obrador was in Havana for two days this past week as Cubans are being devastated by the deadly explosion that destroyed the famous Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana on Friday morning, May 6th, 2022. Back in Mexico City Lopez Obrador said: "It breaks my heart that, in the midst of the blockade and the pandemic, the Cuban people must suffer further because of the explosion that rocked Havana on Friday."

     As of today -- Tuesday, May 10th-2022 -- the death toll in Friday's explosion that demolished the 5-star, 96-room Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana is 35. Dozens more are hospitalized, some in critical conditions, as the salvage operations continue. As you can see from the AFP-Yamil Lage photos above, the blast was so powerful it destroyed or ruined vehicles and buildings close to the Saratoga Hotel.

   In May of 2022, as has been the case since 1962, the U. S. EMBARGO of Cuba overshadows all news related to Cuba...and that includes the explosion that destroyed the Saratoga Hotel, the Summit of the Americas in LA in June that the U. S. says Cuba is too mean to attend, etc. Of Course, in reporting such things the U. S. media doesn't have the courage or integrity to mention that, prior to 1959, the U. S. loved the thieving and brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship that allowed rich Americans to partake in the rape and robbery of the Caribbean's largest and, arguably, its most beautiful island nation.

      Of course, Cuban families since  1959 have different memories of the 1950s than what Americans are told about it. The U.S.-backed and Mafia-backed Batista rule was indeed brutal; and since 1959 it is not true that...all the good Cubans are in Miami and in the U. S. Congress!!

     If you happen to be a Miami Cuban in the U. S. Congress the U. S. media will allow you 24-hours-a-day coverage to tout the virtues of pre-1959 Cuba while defaming everything about post-1959 Cuba.

    But in May of 2022 if you happen to be this Cuban who has lived all of her life in Guantanamo, Cuba, the U. S. media pretends that you don't have opinions about U.S.-Cuban relations. But in fact, she has very important opinions on such things as the Blockade and she often expresses them on both Social Media and Cuba's Media.

   This well-educated Cuban mother was born and still lives in Guantanamo, Cuba. She has pertinent opinions about such things as...the massive U. S. Military Base at Guantanamo Bay, the Embargo, and other important things.

   On Sunday, May 8th-2022 these two Guantanamo-born mothers {above} celebrated Mother's Day in their hometown with other Cubans in Guantanamo, Cuba. Both of them have lived all their lives as victims of the U. S. embargo, which began in 1962, and all their lives they have lived with the knowledge that the U. S. Military Base at Guantanamo Bay has been an unwanted blemish to Cuba since 1903. Maybe...one day...the U. S. media will permit these two mothers to give their thoughts about...such things.

    Uh...I mean...if two ultra-decent mothers who happen to be mother & daughter have lived all their lives in the Cuban town of Guatanamo, Cuba, shouldn't they be allowed to have opinions about massive things that have affected them all their lives...such as the ultra-foreign Embargo or the unwanted ultra-foreign U. S. Military Base next to their town? Uh...JUST ASKING!!!

    Indeed...on May 10-2022 the President of Mexico, ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR loudly continued his fervent campaign to make the United States end "the indecent and criminal blockade of Cuba." As shown above, he maintains that Cubans in Cuba, not just Cubans in Miami, should be allowed to have opinions about "indecent things a foreign power is doing to their families."

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CUBA: Blockade, Pandemic, Explosion

 

    This photo began circling around the world this afternoon -- May 9th, 2022 -- because it was from the worldwide Paris-based AFP News Agency. It shows a Cuban journalist and rescue workers still tirelessly doing what they can at the scene of Friday morning's deadly explosion that destroyed the famed 5-star Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana. The death toll has now reached 35, including four children and a pregnant woman. The Saratoga was built in the 1930s, was massively refurbished in 2005, and was being refurbished again but scheduled to be reopened tomorrow, May 10th, as a prime 96-room tourist-friendly hotel just a block from Havana's El Capitolio, the capital building.

    When the death toll was 31 yesterday the Associated Press journalist stationed in Cuba reported this news but mostly the mainstream U. S. media only reports Cuba-related news that is friendly to the counter-revolutionary Cubans in Miami and Congress.

    Over the weekend -- May 7th & 8th, 2022 -- the President of Mexico was in Havana and this photo-headline circled around the globe because it originated with the powerful worldwide Paris-based AFP News Agency and Yamil Lage, its great photojournalist stationed in Cuba. Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Mexico's President Manuel Lopez Obrador are dear friends dating back to when Diaz-Canel was Cuba's Minister of Education. Lopez Obrador has loudly called the U. S. Embargo/Blockade "inhumane and criminal although the American people have shamefully allowed it to exist for over six decades. Now both the Trump and Biden administrations have taken advantage of the Pandemic to tighten the blockade. Now the inhumane and criminal elements who try to starve Cuban families in Cuba to appease important Cubans in the United States may be rejoicing about the Saratoga Hotel disaster."

   The photos above reveal that even veteran rescue workers are perplexed how much damage and death one explosion at the Saratoga Hotel did. Not only was the 96-room/5-star Saratoga Hotel demolished but vehicles and buildings close to the hotel were also totally ruined.

    As of the morning of Monday-May 9th-2022, above are the names, ages, and the residences of the deceased in the Saratoga Hotel.

     Prior to Friday morning -- May 6th, 2022 -- this was what the beautiful Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana looked like. Now...it's a memory.

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The Deadly Explosion Stuns Havana

 

    As darkness began to settle over Havana on Saturday, May 7th, 2022, all of Cuba remains stunned by the explosion on Friday morning that destroyed the famed Saratoga Hotel in the heart of the capital city. President Miguel Diaz-Canel, still stunned, said: "Nos duele a todos..."/"It hurts all of us."

    Normally the mainstream media in the U. S. reports only on what Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Little Havana/Miami say, but today -- May 7th, 2022 -- prime sources such as NBC News is actually reporting from Havana about the deadly disaster at the famed Saratoga Hotel on Friday morning, May 6th, 2022. The NBC News update late Saturday afternoon correctly reported that the probable cause of the blast was a natural gas leak but, as shown above, Cuba's Tourism Minister Dalila Gonzalez remains skeptical and is still investigating the cause further. The Saratoga Hotel was actually being refurbished and was scheduled to be reopened on May 10th as Cuba gears up for its vital tourist trade after losing so much tourism because of the twin perils of the U. S. Blockade and the Pandemic. Tourism Minister Dalila Gonzalez says, "We always must look out for terrorists who often strike from Miami or from inside Cuba when funded or goaded by Miami...especially when it seems that Cuba is geared for even a semblance of economic progress. The Saratoga would have reopened on May 10th after costly refurbishing and it is a favorite of tourists and it is only a 4-minute walk from El Capitolio, our famous capital."

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At Least 22 Deaths in Saratoga Hotel Disaster

     This photo shows the explosion that devastated the famed Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana Friday morning -- May 6th, 2022. As you can see, it also destroyed cars parked out the hotel too. By Saturday morning the death toll was 22. 

    As Friday turned to Saturday -- from May 6th to May 7th, 2022 -- the death toll from the disastrous explosion Friday morning at the landmark Saratoga Hotel in the heart of Havana had reached 22 by Saturday {May 7th} morning. It is believed that a gas leak was to blame.

     This photo shows Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel arriving at the Saratoga Hotel shortly after the deadly explosion Friday morning.

    Above is a post by Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Twitter after he quickly arrived at the Saratoga Hotel right after the deadly explosion. He confirmed that the cause was "...the accidental explosion of a gas tank."

   Throughout Friday and Friday night and into Saturday morning, Cuban television had live reports from the site of the Saratoga Hotel disaster.

TEARS FOR HAVANA!!!

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Huge Explosion Rocks Havana!!!

Massive Explosion Disrupts Capital!!

   At dawn today -- May 6-2022 -- two million Cubans in their capital city of Havana were mostly concerned about their problems related to the U. S. Blockade and the Pandemic. But this morning they were shocked by a massive explosion that destroyed one of Cuba's landmarks -- the historic Saratoga Hotel, which was only a 4-minute walk from El Capitolio, the historic capital building.

     At least 8 Cubans were killed in the explosion but that number is expected to rise as searches continue. CNN and other international news organizations are reporting that "a gas leak" caused the drastic explosion.

  Today's disaster in Havana exacerbates the mounting problems on the island, which is losing many of its young, well-educated citizens that are more-and-more seeking to migrate to the U. S. to escape Cuba's economic problems.

    This photo shows Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel today at the scene of the huge explosion that destroyed the Saratoga Hotel and killed at least eight people.

     The Saratoga Hotel was built in the heart of Havana in 1933 but the entire building and its 96 rooms were totally refurbished in 2005. Below is how the Saratoga Hotel looks after today's explosion. {May 6, 2022}

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