12 missing in explosion in San Cristóbal will be officially declared dead

The 12 people who are missing after the explosion and fire in the old market of San Cristóbal last August may be judicially declared dead once the respective project that the Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday in first reading becomes law.

The tragedy killed 38 people, although 12 of them could not be officially declared dead because they were not individually identified and because there were no legal provisions that allow it.

The legislative piece refers to the victims reported missing as a result of that strong explosion and subsequent fire that shook a commercial area of ​​the municipality of San Cristóbal on August 14 of last year, which also caused the destruction of several commercial premises.

The legislative piece authored by Congresswoman Ydenia Doñé Tiburcio states that the natural persons who have disappeared and who were in the old market on Padre Ayala Street in San Cristóbal and surrounding areas, and whose survival there is no news and whose bodies have not been found or have not been identified, they may be declared deceased.

The deputy assured that many children of the disappeared have had difficulties in collecting pensions and other relatives continue to deal with the unrest of pending civil procedures, including the marital status of widowers.

Publications, videos, audios, digital location, telephone conversations and other references or witnesses and circumstances “worthy of credit” will be admissible for the purposes of the official declaration of death.