The humanitarian crisis in Cuba continues to deepen and has left increasingly dramatic images in various cities across the island. The shortage of food and the economic collapse of the communist regime now force thousands of people to rummage through garbage containers in an attempt to find something to eat.
What years ago appeared to be a marginal situation has now become a daily scene in places like Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, and Santa Clara.
“It’s all the time, every day”
Cuban historian and analyst Boris González Arenas warned that the situation has already reached critical levels and directly blamed the regime for the social deterioration.
“By taking away the food from the ration book and all the state management around food, they have simply condemned them to hunger”, he stated in remarks reported by Martí Noticias.
The specialist also described the magnitude of the crisis:
“There is an army of people searching in the trash. There is no age limit, no gender. You see young people, the elderly, men, and women. And it’s all the time, every day”, he asserted.
He explained that the phenomenon has ceased to be concentrated in marginal sectors and now affects a large part of Cuban society.
The food crisis spreads across the island
In provinces like Holguín, the situation has become visible even in historic public spaces.
The children's park Los Caballitos, which for decades served as a family recreation point, has now turned into a place where people search for food scraps among the waste.
Independent journalist Julio César Álvarez Marrero reported that many people even cook on the street using waste found in garbage dumps.
“There are people who search for food there and even consume products that state agencies discard when they go bad”, he explained.
The situation is even more extreme in Guantánamo.
Activist Niover García Fournier stated that even the garbage is not enough:
“People no longer waste anything”, he affirmed.
