Díaz-Canel recalled that the institution was Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro’s idea, and received a detailed explanation on how the scientific center that monitors and studies seismic activity in Cuba and the Caribbean works. In this institution, he stressed the importance of maintaining constant communication with the people and authorities, especially where last Sunday’s earthquakes were recorded with greater intensity.

Later, Díaz-Canel, who is also the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), visited the “Cuqui Bosh” sports complex in this city, where the Provincial Defense Council would be located in case of an earthquake.

He also visited the “Juan de la Cruz Martínez Maceira” Northern Children’s Hospital, one of the health institutions where structural work is being done to revive its services, where he learned that it had only had superficial damage.

The National Defense Council president was accompanied by the secretary of Organization of the PCC Central Committee, Roberto Morales Ojeda; and the first secretary of the PCC Provincial Committee in Santiago de Cuba, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia.

jg/lam/yvg