Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – A meringue icon, a baseball star and others killed when a cement roof collapsed In a popular nightclub In the Dominican Republic they were buried on Thursday, since the authorities canceled the search for bodies with the death toll in 221.
The mourners dressed in black and white transmitted to the National Theater of Santo Domingo, where the singer’s body Rubby Pérez He lies inside a closed coffin. Pérez had been acting on stage at the Jet Set Club of packed on Tuesday when the dust began to fall from the roof and, seconds later, the roof collapsed.
President Luis Abinader and the first lady Raquel Arbaje arrived at the theater and stopped next to Pérez’s coffin for several minutes. Some mourners doubled in tears while Pérez sang the national anthem. The famous Dominican musician Juan Luis Guerra was one of those who gathered to present their respects.
Pérez, 69, had resorted to music after a car accident left him unable to pursue his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. He was known for the successes that include “I will return”, which he sang with the orchestra of Wilfrido Vargas, and “looking for your kisses” as a soloist.
After a five -hour monument, the mourners released dozens of white balloons outside the theater and spontaneously sang “I will return” in unison. A woman put her hand on her heart and gave her palmaditas while crying.
In the cemetery, Zulinka Pérez, one of his daughters, said: “I knew I was loved but I never imagined this.”
Only blocks from the monument to Pérez, the heavy team began to withdraw from the site where Jet Set stopped once and rescue teams packed his team.
Meanwhile, a group of prosecutors arrived.
It is not yet clear what caused the roof to collapse or when the building was inspected for the last time. The Government has said that it will launch an exhaustive investigation, and club owners have said they are cooperating with the authorities.
Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the Emergency Operations Center, broke when he went to journalists.
“Thank you, God, because today we achieved the most difficult task I have had in 20 years,” he said, moving away the microphone of his face while crying. Other officials palmar him on the back as he continued: “Please forgive me”, before passing the microphone to an army official.
The authorities said 189 people were rescued lives from the debris. More than 200 were injured, with 23 of them still hospitalized, including eight in critical condition.
“If the trauma is too big, there is not much time left” to save patients in that condition, said Health Minister Víctor Atallah. He and other doctors said some of the injured suffered fractures in the skull, femur and pelvis.
Many people have been anxiously waiting for news from their loved onesincreasingly frustrated with the drip of information provided by the hospitals and the country’s forensic institute.
At least 146 bodies have been identified, authorities said Thursday.
María Luisa Taveras toled TV Station News Without That She was looking for her sister.
“We have gone to all the places where they have told us,” he said, his voice that broke.
Taveras said the family has spread, with a relative parked in each hospital and at the National Institute of Forensic Pathology. Dozens of people waited at institute on Thursday, wearing masks and complaining about the smell while demanding the release of the bodies of their loved ones.
“The smell is unbearable,” said Wendy Sosa, who has been waiting since Wednesday morning for his cousin’s body, Nilka Curiel González, 61. Sosa told Associated Press by phone that the situation there was “chaotic”, and that officials had established a refrigerated container to handle the volume of bodies that are delivered.
He cried while describing his cousin as kind, authentic and “very empathic.”
Victims identified so far include former MLB players Octavio Dotel and Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera; and Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwest province of Montecristi, whose brother is seven times there of the big baseball leagues Nelson Cruz.
Dotel was buried on Thursday in Santo Domingo. Hundreds of people attended their Estela on Wednesday, including the member of the Hall of Fame David Ortiz, previously of the Boston Red Sox. Ortiz said the number of people attending Dotel’s Wake spoke a lot.
“He was a person they all loved,” Ortiz told reporters. “It’s very difficult, very hard, really.”
The member of the MLB Hall of Fame, Pedro Martínez, attended another Estela on Thursday.
“There are no words to describe the pain we are all feeling,” Martínez said, added that he knew more than 50 of those who died. “Life is nothing more than breath.”
Also murdered there was a retired official from the United Nations; The saxophonist Luis Solís, who played on stage when the roof fell; The fashion designer based in New York Martín Polanco; son and daughter -in -law of the Minister of Public Works; the brother of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Youth; and three employees of Grupo Popular, a financial services company, including the president of the Popular Bank of AFP and his wife.
More than 20 victims came from Haina, the hometown of Rubby Pérez, just southwest of Santo Domingo.
The governor celebrated a community wake, establishing 10 means coffins under a banner that said: “Haina says goodbye with her beloved children with immense sadness.”
Among the mourners was Juancho Guillén, who lost his wife three months ago and whose brother, sister and brother -in -law died in Jet Set.
“This family is in shock, is devastated,” Sin News told news. “We are practically dead too.”
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Country of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
