Hungry Cubans scavenging through garbage cans in search of food

Food, medicine, and fuel are in short supply in communist Cuba. For many Cubans, the only way to find enough sustenance to survive is to rummage through garbage for a morsel to eat. The hunger ravaging the Cuban people stands in stark contrast to lives of luxury led by the Communist Party elite and the foreign tourists who enjoy endless buffets of gourmet food. This is socialism in action.

Via Martí Noticias (my translation):

There are many Cubans ‘scavenging through garbage cans to feed themselves,’ says opposition leader

The crisis is having devastating consequences on Cuban families, says Manuel Cuesta Morúa, vice president of the Council of the Democratic Transition in Cuba.

“The levels of poverty have accelerated, that’s why you see many people scavenging through garbage cans to try to feed themselves, both in cities and rural areas,” stated the opposition leader.

Also the leader of the opposition platform D Frente, who recently urged Cuban authorities to initiate a process of changes to “overcome the structural causes of the systematic crisis that the Cuban nation is experiencing,” explained that, among other reasons, poverty levels have increased because the government has made adjustments to pensions.

“So, now, to a person who used to receive 2,500 pesos, they only give 2,000, they have taken away 500 pesos and there are new calculations for pensions, for social assistance… that multiplies poverty,” he pointed out.

The historian warned that currently Cuba “is an absolutely poor country, except for its elite” and approximately 6 to 7% of the population, representing those who work in the private sector or own small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“Poverty has increased both absolutely and relatively,” emphasized Cuesta Morúa.

According to journalist Jorge Enrique Rodríguez, inequalities are becoming increasingly visible on the island and poverty levels are worsening and will continue to worsen. “It is a country that has no industry and is not producing anything at all, at the national level,” something that impacts “of course, in an unemployment that is poorly addressed,” noted the journalist.

At the same time, Rodríguez warns that “levels of poverty are translating into more homeless people and more violence. Of course, violence goes hand in hand with scarcity, regardless of traditional crimes, the crimes that have always existed.”

The journalist analyzed that “all the worsening in Cuba goes hand in hand with the economic crisis that the government is experiencing, a crisis that is cyclical.” However, he considered that the crisis currently being experienced by Cubans “is unprecedented.”

In February 2024, Cuban officials acknowledged that there are 1,236 communities in vulnerable situations in the country. The term “Vulnerable Populations” is used by the United Nations to refer, among other things, to “people living in extreme poverty” and use parameters such as hunger, malnutrition, lack of adequate housing, and limited access to other basic services such as education and health.

In June 2023, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel admitted that hundreds of thousands of Cubans live in poverty: “We have more than 300,000 vulnerable people and we do not have the resources to solve everyone’s problems.”