The horrific tragedy that occurred on Wednesday, 15 August 2023 shortly after 3pm in the city center of San Cristobal continues to impact its residents as the number of fatalities rose from 27 on Thursday, 17 August to 32 on Sunday, 20 August.
Only 13 of the victims have been positively identified, and this has caused even more pain as the burial process begins for only a few. The authorities say it could take up to six months to complete the identifications and comparisons to missing persons.
At the same time, the Center for Emergency Operations (COE) continues to work through the wreckage and deal with the destruction.
As a result, some of the commercial activity in the area has begun to reopen.
President Abinader decreed that government purchases and contracts connected with the disaster aid are covered under an “emergency act” (Decree 375-23).
State prosecutors and investigators refer to “criminal responsibility” in the explosion. The company that is suspect of being where the explosion originated, Plasticos Vidal, SRL, is under heavy scrutiny, especially because there is abundant evidence that the company had already suffered a fire in March 2023, “and no measures (of security) were taken.”
El Nacional published a news story with the speculation by independent investigators that an irregular center for refilling shotgun and pistol cartridges operated at the scene of the accident.
Four days after the Wednesday, 15 August tragedy, there has been no official report on the possible causes of the incident even when hours after the explosion, President Luis Abinader ordered the Intelligence Department of the J-2 General Staff, of the Ministry of Defense (MIDE), to direct the investigations carried out by the Fire Department to determine the cause and origin of the explosions in the commercial area of Padre Ayala street, San Cristóbal.
Among the latest news items that reflect the consequences of the disaster, which was certainly the largest human-related tragedy of this century, was the news that one of the firemen that took part in ground-zero firefighting and rescue operation is currently in the hospital with pneumonia.
Somos Pueblo revealed that one of the Vidal Plasticos company officers is on the government payroll as director of the Control of Alcoholic Beverages Agency in San Cristobal.
Likewise, Diario Libre reports that Edward Armando Vidal, to whom ownership of Vidal Plast, the plastic materials recycling company where, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, generated the spark that triggered a strong explosion in the center of the city, appears on the payroll of the Government’s Social Policy Cabinet.
According to this payroll, Vidal is “executive assistant of the coordinator’s office,” Francisco Antonio (Tony) Peña Guaba, and is being investigated by the Public Ministry together with other people who could have “criminal responsibility” in the tragedy that left a balance of 32 dead.
Read more in Spanish:
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
El Nacional
Listin Diario
Acento
Listin Diario
El Caribe
Acento
Listin Diario
Somos Pueblo
Somos Pueblo
El Dia
Diario Libre
DR1 News
21 August 2023