In Cuba, massive forest fires have been raging and are now threatening the province of Santiago de Cuba, where the nation’s second largest city is located. The provincial administration said on Tuesday that a high-intensity fire had been confined near the communities of San Luis and Mella. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, 250 residents of Mella had joined efforts to limit the blaze. Authorities in Cuba believe that 80 fires have broken out across the nation since January, and firemen, armed forces, and park rangers are all working together to put out the flames.
Several farms and coffee plantations on the island were lost, and the blazes are estimated to have burned about 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) in total. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel took to Twitter on Monday to recognize the “great struggle” of those fighting the fires in Holgun province, specifically in the Pinares de Mayar pine forest region. Firefighters, forest guards, and inhabitants in Pinares de Mayar are “facing the fires destroying the magnificent and irreplaceable woods of the eastern area with tremendous courage and sacrifice,” Dz-Canel wrote. The fires are spreading across “a vast region, not just one focal point,” according to officials quoted by state television. Pinar del Ro and Artemisia in the west, and Camagüey and Holgun in the east, are two of the provinces severely damaged. Mensura-Piloto National Park in Cuba, an area of 6,046 ha (14.940 acres) that is home to wooded mountains and cascading waterfalls, was formerly threatened by fires. Officials have warned that it might take years for Cuba to recover from the destruction caused by the fires because of the country’s rugged geography and continuous drought.
The tourist sector, one of the country’s primary economic drivers, has seen a dramatic fall as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, contributing to the country’s current economic crisis, which is among the worst it has had in decades. Only in 2020 did Cuba’s GDP contract by 11 percent, the greatest annual decline since the Soviet Union’s fall. U.S. President Donald Trump increased sanctions and reversed Obama-era policy meant to de-escalate relations with Cuba as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign. The poor state of Cuba’s economy has led to widespread shortages of food and other needs, as well as one of the greatest migration crises in the country’s history.
