Cubans resort to searching through garbage to find food to eat

The food shortages and hunger plaguing communist Cuba has forced Cubans to search through the garbage piling up on the streets to find a morsel of food to eat. With the shelves empty in state-run stores, the island now has people sifting through trash 24 hours a day in the hopes they can find sustenance.

Via Martí Noticias (my translation):

The combination of food and medicine shortages in Cuba represents a complex humanitarian emergency, and the government is doing too little to alleviate the situation, activist Omar López Montenegro told Martí Noticias.

“We are on the verge, if not already in the midst, of a humanitarian catastrophe in Cuba because the economic crisis and the food crisis have repercussions on the health crisis: there aren’t even laxatives to give to someone! Diseases that are simple and can be easily controlled turn into epidemics, and that is what is happening in Cuba,” said the opponent exiled in the United States.

“If there are no sanitary supplies, if there is no way for people to maintain personal hygiene, this opens the door to diseases; the lack of cleanliness, of garbage collection,” he added.

“Cuba is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis characterized by food and resource shortages, continuous blackouts, and limited access to medical supplies,” noted WOLA, a leading research and advocacy organization promoting human rights in the Americas.

From Havana, independent journalist Boris González Arenas told Martí Noticias that low incomes and high inflation weaken people’s purchasing power and increase the risk of food insecurity.

“For many decades, the amount of food provided distributed through the ration book has not been enough. For the past five or six years, products have been removed from this ration book, making the situation for Cubans more precarious. It’s very simple: the cause and effect are clear. Men and women are searching through the trash 24 hours a day and, at times, eating directly from the garbage,” Arenas described.

“That is the communist regime at this moment, and then, an official comes out and says, ‘But don’t worry, save your hunger for next month, because the rice for this month will be given to you next month,’” the communicator ironically remarked.

While the Castro dictatorship spends millions on hotels and resorts for foreign tourists, where endless buffets are served, the Cuban people are left to starve as second class citizens. This is socialism in action.