The Jetset nightclub was one of the Dominican Republics most iconic and famous nightclubs, located in the Capital Santo Domingo. It had decades of service until the night of April 8th, 2025, when the famous Ruby Perez was performing on stage for their famous Monday night concerts. Everything was going fine until it wasn’t. Almost an hour after the start of the show, the roof suddenly collapsed, trapping, killing and injuring hundreds of party goers. An event of its kind had never been witnessed in the country before. With international help we were able to rescue hundreds from the rubbles but even with all efforts 236 died and more than 180 were injured, not counting those that were able to get away but were traumatized deeply by the event.

The owners of the nightclub the Espaillats are a rich and powerful family who own several businesses and media stations in the country, so much so that they tried to change the narrative initially to feign innocence. However, as more details came out and because you can’t hide the sun with one finger, we learned it was pure negligence even if they won’t admit it. The collapse left hundreds of orphans and people unable to work and take care of themselves and who helped them? Not the Espaillats, not the government but a non profit called Jonpeame RD. Recently, there were still marches and protests being performed due to the lack of justice. The building the club was in was once a movie theather and it was never restructured for its new purpose, they kept adding weight to the roof when there were no support columns what so ever in the middle of the building to balance the weight out. New sound equipment, 6 huge ac units, water tanks, all of these things were added to a roof that wasn’t even fixed properly according to some, after a fire that struck in in 2023. There were filtration issues and they kept “mending” it instead of the fixes needed by someone who knew what they were doing. According to the star witness Gregory Adames, who had worked at the club for years at this point he even advised the concert that night should be canceled as water and pieces from the roof kept falling for weeks before the event. Gregory himself knew it could be dangerous but he never expected the magnitude of its danger. Being in the club himself that night, he recalled how the owners and Espaillats sister, Marisol Espaillat, said it could be taken care of at another time. She was also in attendance that night.

The people who died at this club ranged from famous baseball players, musicians (including Ruby Perez himself) fashion designers, rich executives and presidents in the financial sectors, high up leaders in the public sectors including the leader of Urban infrastructure, politicians, doctors, military officials, workers, and middle class citizens who occupied all sorts of jobs and positions, with heart-wrenching stories of their own. Despite this, and the hope that because so many important people died this case would be taken more seriously by authorities and the justice system it was not. In fact, the class divide showed even more with those peoples bodies being released quicker and those who weren’t having to wait long periods of times for their family members bodies to be returned by overworked and understaffed coroners and forensic workers.