USA TODAY International Edition
Havana’s buildings turn to rubble
Collapses make Cuba’s housing shortage worse
HAVANA – Rafael Alvarez was up at 6:30 a.m. to warm milk for his baby daughter when he heard the sound of pebbles falling.
“That's when the floor below us came loose,” he said. “We were left hanging in the air, then fell into the abyss.”
Alvarez, 41, a baker, was buried in rubble to his waist. His mother, daughter and two others were killed when the 101year-old building collapsed.
“Save the babies!” were his mother's last words, he said.
In Havana, some of the same architectural gems that draw tens of thousands of American tourists crash to the ground every year. Causes range from weather and neglect to faulty renovations and theft of structural beams.
Carlos Guerrero, 45, said he and his family live “like scared dogs” in a crumbling building along Merced Street.
Neighbors tell them, “Get out of there! It's going to collapse!”
“It makes you feel like going and living under a bridge,” said Guerrero, who vowed to grab a machete and seek revenge on housing officials if anything happened to his wife and three children.
In Havana, 3,856 partial or total building collapses were reported from 2000 to 2013, not including 2010 and 2011 when no records were kept.
The collapses worsened an already severe housing shortage. Havana had a deficit of 206,000 homes in 2016.
The housing crisis is one of the most pressing challenges facing Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who pledged to improve housing after taking charge of the communist nation of 11 million people in April.
Havana officials have won dozens of international awards for their work to restore the historic sector known as Old Havana, which features styles ranging from Baroque and neoclassical to Art Deco. UNESCO calls Old Havana one of Latin America's “most notable” historic city centers and named it a World Heritage site in 1982.
Havana officials use tourism revenue to renovate architectural treasures, but they can't keep up with the decay.
About 28,000 people live in buildings that could collapse at any moment. Some residents refuse to leave structures that authorities declared unsafe.
“Of course we're scared, but what are we going to do?” said Yanelis Flores, 42, who rejected a government offer to move into a shelter.
Fidel Castro promised to demolish “hellish tenements” and build safe, modern housing when he took power in 1959.
Cuban officials don't release figures on those killed or injured in building collapses.
Alvarez, the baker, said that before his second-story apartment came down on July 15, 2015, workers on the ground floor were using a jackhammer to strip the walls to the brick. He said cracks from below began inching toward his apartment. His mother complained, but city inspectors said the workers weren't to blame.
Alvarez said his wife, Lizbett, 41, fell headfirst into the rubble during the building collapse and was in a coma for 22 days. She recovered but doesn't like talking about the episode, and she won't walk past where her home once stood.
Alvarez fractured his spine in three places but dismissed his injuries and praised the victims.
He said his mother, Mayra Paez, 60, shouted, “Save the babies!” until her voice grew silent.
Rescuers told him she suffocated. She was a former nurse, “much loved in the neighborhood,” her son said.
No one could save his daughter, Genolan, 3. She was “a happy girl,” her father said. “She talked all the time and danced a lot.”
His nephew, Jorge Alvarez, 18, wanted to be a welder.
“He was my life,” his uncle said. After the accident, authorities investigated an architect and four others who had planned to open a fast-food restaurant at the site. This summer, authorities told Alvarez they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute anyone.
“I started to cry,” he said. “I expected that justice would be done. They said, ‘Calm down, sir. Calm down. Do you want some water?'
“What I want is justice. I don't want anything else.” This report was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center.