14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 21 June 2024 — At 11:00 PM Thursday night, a balcony collapsed onto El Tablazo, a cafe located on First Street, between C and D streets, in Havana’s Vedado district. The incident, part of a wave of collapses that is now impacting even one of the capital’s most solidly-built neighborhoods, occurred at a time when the building was fully occupied. Three adults were injured in the collapse.
Stacks of marble slabs and bags of cement, stored on a second-floor balcony by a construction crew, led to the collapse. Independent journalist Julio Aleaga, a resident of the property, reported that recent repairs to the building, which he claims were not executed properly, contributed the structural failure.
The accident was reported on the Facebook page of the Revolution Plaza Municipal Assembly. Two floors of both this building and its neighbor, which are located very close to the shoreline, were recently repaired – at least superficially – by the owners of the ground-floor cafes Chucherías, El Tablazo and 3D, the latter owned by the comedian Roberto Riverón, known as “Robertico.”
For Aleaga, the collapse was yet another indication of how new business ventures are operating on the island. Taking advantage of a series of legal loopholes, he believes private owners of small businesses are converting residential apartments into cafes or mini-factories.
The owners of these businesses have no other choice, explains Aleaga, than to carry out these conversions with h