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WORLD NEWS Monday 9 May 2022

Havana hotel death toll at 30 as dogs search for survivors

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ by the coronavirus pan-
Associated Press demic as well as tightened
HAVANA (AP) — Search sanctions imposed by for-
crews with dogs on Sunday mer U.S. President Donald
hunted through the ruins Trump and kept in place
of a luxury hotel in Cuba's the Biden administration.
capital for survivors of a Those limited visits by U.S.
devastating explosion while tourists to the islands and
officials raised the number restricted remittances from
of known dead to 30. Cubans in the U.S. to their
The Hotel Saratoga, a five- families in Cuba.
star 96-room hotel in Old Tourism had started to re-
Havana, was preparing to vive somewhat early this
reopen after being closed year, but the war in Ukraine
for two years when an ap- deflated a boom of Russian
parent gas leak ignited, visitors, who accounted for
blowing the outer walls almost a third of the tourists
into the busy, midmorning arriving in Cuba last year.
streets just a block from the The Saratoga, which had
country's Capitol building been closed through the
on Friday. pandemic, was one of the
Cuban officials on Sunday elite lodgings in Havana,
raised the known death toll often hosting visiting VIPs
to 30 from 27 even as crews and celebrities.
continued to search for vic- Rescuers advance to help recover a body at the site of Friday's deadly explosion that destroyed Some attention in Cuba
tims buried beneath piles the five-star Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, May 7, 2022. began to shift to an official
of shattered concrete. Sev- Associated Press visit by Mexican President
eral nearby structures also Andrés Manuel López Ob-
were damaged, including companion was seriously believed it to have been which was rescued along rador, who arrived Satur-
the historic Marti Theater injured. caused by a gas leak. with another dog Sunday. day night at the end of a
and the Calvary Baptist The ministry on Sunday A large crane hoisted a Crews have worked to five-country tour that be-
Church, headquarters for also released the names of charred gas tanker out of clean up streets around the gan in Central America.
the denomination in west- those who died. Some 24 the rubble Saturday. hotel and by late Saturday, López Obrador met Sun-
ern Cuba. people remained hospital- Burials for victims have be- substantial pedestrian traf- day with Cuban President
The church said on its ized. gun, according to munici- fic had resumed. Miguel Díaz-Canel, who
Facebook page that the On Saturday, a represen- pal authorities. But some "There are mothers who are awarded him the Order
building suffered "signifi- tative of Grupo de Tur- were still waiting for news without their children to- of Jose Marti "for his great
cant structural damage, ismo Gaviota SA, which of missing friends and rela- day," Matha Verde, a mani- achievements for human-
with several collapsed or owns the hotel, said 13 of tives. curist who was walking near ity." It is the most important
cracked walls and columns its workers remained miss- "We are hoping that some- the Saratoga, said Sunday, award the country gives to
(and) the ceiling partial- ing. Gov. Reinaldo García thing will be known about when Mother's Day was a foreigner.
ly collapsed," though no Zapata said Saturday eve- my cousin's mother," An- celebrated in Cuba. She Díaz-Canel's office stated
church workers were hurt. ning that 19 families had gela Acosta told The Asso- said she tells women who in a tweet that López Ob-
The Health Ministry said 84 reported loved ones miss- ciated Press near the site of lost their sons or daughters rador said he would insist
people had been injured ing and that rescue efforts the explosion. Her relative, in the explosion that they to U.S. President Joe Biden
in Friday's explosion. The would continue. María de la Concepción "have to keep going." that Cuba not be exclud-
dead included four minors, Authorities said the cause Alard, lived in an apart- The explosion added to the ed from the Summit of the
a pregnant woman and of the explosion was still ment adjacent to the ho- woes of a crucial tourism in- Americas it will host in Los
a Spanish tourist, whose under investigation, but tel with a black Labrador, dustry that had been stifled Angeles in June.q