Madrid/The electrician Alexander Pantoja Bertot, missing since thursday in a rural area of Santiago de Cuba, he was found dead this Sunday. This was confirmed by the province’s Electric Company in a statement published on its official profile.
According to the state entitya brigade of rangers found the body in the El Palmar area, in the municipality of Contramaestre. Experts and authorities remain at the scene to determine the causes and circumstances of death.
The company regretted the news and described Pantoja Bertot as a colleague who “was part of this great family of electrical workers.” He also sent condolences to his family and friends and assured that his loss “leaves a deep void” among those who worked with him.
Pantoja Bertot, a lineman for the Santiago de Cuba Electric Company, disappeared on Thursday while touring the power line that supplies the Gota Blanca reservoir, in the rural strip between the municipalities of Palma Soriano and Contramaestre.
The company regretted the news and described Pantoja Bertot as a colleague who “was part of this great family of electrical workers.”
Since then, a search operation had mobilized rescue teams, coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior, with canine brigades, National Police agents and dozens of linemen, with support from drones and resources from Geocuba, Etecsa and the Cuban Red Cross. This Sunday, 50 electrical workers from the provincial capital and an additional canine unit from the municipality of Mella had joined. as reported the provincial head of Operations and Relief of the Red Cross in Santiago de Cuba, Aris Arias Batalla.
In the days before the discovery, Pantoja Bertot’s sister, Yaima Bertot, had expressed his anguish in the face of uncertainty about what happened. “I want to be positive until the end to give encouragement to my mother and family, but the reality may be different. I beg to leave my brother in a place where he can be seen: not one more day without hearing from him.”
The disappearance and subsequent death of Pantoja Bertot adds to a climate of growing citizen insecurity in Cuba. Reports of robberies, assaults and violent acts in both rural and urban areas have increased as the crisis that the country is going through progresses. According to the independent organization Cubalex, only in August They recorded 52 homicides and more than 300 violent crimes in Cuba, a record number that reflects the magnitude of the deterioration of security on the Island.
