Cuban radio amateurs have always distinguished themselves by their expressions of solidarity and their manifestations of help in the face of any disaster situation, going promptly wherever the presence of a helping hand or the deployment of their means of communication has been needed, all of which has contributed to the safeguarding of thousands of human lives and large material resources.

This happened with the presence of a group of 30 of our colleagues who from the provinces of Havana, Artemisa, Villa Clara and Pinar del Río, participated in the general actions of Logistics and rescue and rescue in the capital Hotel Saratoga, after the unfortunate accident destroyed much of the structure of this legendary tourist facility, and will also affect other nearby buildings.

Our colleagues exhibited the vast experience accumulated throughout our country, where they have given their support in the mobilizations of the Defense, the Civil Defense, in the presence of cyclones, various meteorological events, natural disasters and in as many opportunities as they have been summoned by the authorities of the country, integrating into the formations of the Emergency Network in all the municipalities of the nation.

On this occasion, after the first moments of knowing the explosion that occurred around 10:45 in the morning of 6th May 2022, it was not necessary to summon any of the 30 members of the Federation of Amateur Radio of Cuba (FRC), who joined the Rescue and Rescue actions in that fateful event; conscience, altruism and the desire to offer their solidarity help was leading them all to stay for almost a week working side by side with the rest of the professional rescuers and volunteers who filled that place.

It was this, according to the colleagues who attended there, which all have valued as the most important participation in an emergency operation, where they integrated the growing list of people who helped the rescue and rescue work and remained on firm foot until the location of the last of the victims in that tragic event, in which so far the chilling figure of 46 dead and 99 injured has been officially reported.

In the Saratoga Hotel a unique integration was seen, a uniform mass where this advanced radio amateurs arrived from the four mentioned provinces, merged in spirit, body and soul together with the professional forces of the Firefighters, Rescue and Rescue, Red Cross, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of the Interior, Armed Forces, Ministry of Construction, volunteers from the people of the capital and other territories of the country, with the primary objective of helping to save lives and contribute to the search for people who had been reported missing, many of whom had to be removed already deceased under the rubble.

All agree that the actions carried out by these combined forces showed a distinctive element that was of vital importance: unity, that unity to which our people have been called since the first moments of the triumph of the Revolution, the same unity that the President of the Republic reiterates in his calls in these difficult times that the heroic Antillean Island is going through.

There in the middle of a colossal effort where no one slept, where only the rest of a few minutes was possible, on site and among the incessant roar of the specialized machinery, everything was shared: every moment of sadness, every tear was shared with the relatives who approached and asked about the possible appearance of one of their own or a friend. They also shared the solidarity hugs, the pats on the shoulder so as not to faint, the food that in solidarity came from the hand of organizations and humble citizens who sent us as much provision as they could gather.

It was very difficult to distinguish, beyond the dusty uniform of the professionals, who were the radio amateurs, who were those of the Red Cross or Firefighters or Rescuers by trade, who of other formations; the faces all focused on the same objective, the debris and the ruins of the collapse, trying that the eyes and the thought itself could cross the cloud of dust originated by the machinery and tools used by the lifeguards in each removal of the rubble, actions these always surrounded by a very high quota of danger due to the situation in which the structures of the Saratoga Hotel and the adjoining building where both threatened total collapse.

In every event of our lives there is always some person who without intending it, and who by virtue of his qualities and his own drive becomes a leader to whom we must go to at least show us the first routes of the way; and in the case of the representation of the radio amateurs who went through the Saratoga, that role of leader corresponded to the capital Héctor Oscar Rivero Martínez (CM2SSS), from the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón. We saw that colleague unstoppable, indefatigable, moving from one side to the other, the same in logistics tasks, in the removal of debris, in the extraction of the bodies of fatal victims or in the attention and guidance of each of the radio amateurs who came to be integrated into the rescue and rescue actions.

So outstanding was also the role played by other radio amateurs such as the cases of Yunier Ramírez Elvírez (CL2YRR), tireless in his work as a frontline rescuer; Clemente Acosta Alomá (CL2CAA), who from his position in the Red Cross tent constantly approached radio amateurs, firefighters and the rest of his colleagues, worried about whether they were well cared for, if they needed water or food. And in a similar attitude we find Ilson Infante Brito, (CL2LEM), equally tireless and developing on any front of the actions in the Saratoga.

There we were present in each tour of our President and the other authorities of the country, there we were able to exchange directly with the First Secretary of the Party in Havana, comrade Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, who was explained first-hand about the presence and actions developed by the group of radio amateurs who were distributed in all the areas where the rescue and rescue tasks were undertaken.

There is no doubt that after the plane crash that occurred in March 2018, where 112 people lost their lives, the events that occurred at the Saratoga Hotel make it the greatest tragedy in Cuba in recent years, an event in which for obvious reasons of the place where it happened, it counted from the first moment and until the rescue tasks concluded last Thursday 12th May 2022, with the assistance to the tasks of support of a tide of people among which were the radio amateurs.

There was then a representation of lovers of the world of radio, antennas and cables; there they went to give their contribution in a totally autonomous, spontaneous, voluntary way, without asking or expecting anything in return, as they have always done throughout history; there we saw them disguised as dust and debris residues; their bodies and clothes dirty from the relentless struggle day and night, demonstrating, far beyond any political conception, that Cuban radio amateurs are part of the fundamental unity that is inherited from the teachings of our Apostle José Martí.

It was for all the facts narrated here that we considered it appropriate to wait for the conclusion of all the actions in the Rescue and Rescue operation at the Saratoga Hotel, including the realization of the Vigil held on Friday night, to publish on our website WEB a review that summarized the modest but very outstanding contribution of the Radio Amateurs during all these sad but unforgettable days. Very deserved was the recognition that was made to this group of our colleagues in an interactive radio event held on the night of Saturday, May 14, when the Weekly Informative Bulletin Encuentro Capitalino served as a platform to listen to the anecdotes and considerations in the own voice of several of the protagonists of the provinces of Havana and Artemisa.

The list of radio amateurs who participated can be seen at https://www.frcuba.cu/filiales-grupos/la-habana/honor-a-quien-honor-merece.html