Madrid/Two people died this Tuesday in Holguín after ingesting nitro salt in food. The deceased are Clara Suárez Rodríguez, 63 years old, and Manuel Fernández Fernández, 65 years old. Yaneisi Peña Escobar, 37 years old and the woman’s daughter, is hospitalized in serious condition due to the same event.
The information has been spread by the General Directorate of Health of Holguín in an unprecedented movement, since it had not previously circulated as a rumor. According to the agency, the events occurred on the night of September 29, when the Emerging Intensive Care Unit of the Emergency Service of the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Provincial General Hospital received the three family members.
Yaneisi Peña Escobar, who lives in the Ramón Quintana neighborhood, works as a domestic worker in a house near hers where there is a sausage production center, a fact that the investigation considers relevant, although it is unknown how and where she acquired the salt. According to official information, Peña cooked with that product and ate it, along with his mother and stepfather. Shortly afterward he began to have sweating and convulsions and was admitted to the hospital already in a coma, for which he was provided with mechanical ventilation.
Shortly afterward he began to have sweating and convulsions and was admitted to the hospital already in a coma, for which he was given mechanical ventilation.
Clara Suárez and Manuel Fernández, with vagal symptoms, were sent to the hospital on medical recommendation, but upon arriving at the center, rapid severe neurological deterioration was observed with poor evolution that required resuscitation maneuvers. Both died shortly after from pulmonary edema.
“We regret these painful losses that could have been avoided and we join the pain of family and friends. The health system in the province together with joint forces of the Ministry of the Interior continue the investigative process, to clarify all the elements,” the note states.
Peña Escobar, for her part, remains hospitalized in critical condition and undergoing intensive treatment, but is “awake, conscious, cooperative and separated from the ventilation equipment” since this Wednesday.
On August 25, 52 people, including two pregnant women and three minors, suffered another food poisoning in Santiago de Cuba. The health authorities also disclosed the facts in this case, although they did not say what caused the patients’ need to be treated for “abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and a feeling of cramps in the mouth and hands.” In addition, some of them presented “light and moderate dehydration, due to vomiting and bowel movements.”
Local sources cited then by Martí News They pointed out the use of nitro salt and bread made with inedible oil as possible causes.
In February 2025, two women lost their lives after ingesting nitro salt. Doraima García Moroña and her daughter and Nashlyn Salet Hernández García had received the product, according to the official version, through a relative who found it, compared to the initial idea that they bought it in the informal market. In this event, three more people were hospitalized.
On that occasionwhen it was also reported more quickly than usual, the authorities urged the population to be attentive to the product, for fear of high circulation on the Island. The América Arias Gynecobstetric Hospital published a post broadcast by Canal Habana in which it explained what nitro salt is and the serious damage it can cause, including death. The most important thing, they advised, is to look at the color and texture to differentiate it from common salt and, when in doubt, heat it: “if it melts in a yellowish tone, it is nitro salt.”
