A video shared on social media caused an uproar among Cubans inside and outside the island, showing a worker picking up spilled yogurt with his hands in the middle of the street, right in front of a Mipyme store filled with food.
The images were captured in the municipality of La Lisa, in Havana, and shared by the account of Facebook 'La Tijera', which expressed its sorrow and concern over the growing inequality experienced in the country.
The video shows an elderly man, dressed in a blue jumpsuit, carefully collecting the contents of a container that spilled for a customer, without caring that it flows along the street beside the edge of the sidewalk.
Around her, several people pass by normally in front of the store, which displays all kinds of cold cuts, meats, chicken, processed and frozen products through its windows, inaccessible for most citizens living on a state salary.
"God knows if that yogurt will be given to a child, consumed by him or his wife,” comments the woman recording the video with indignation. Her testimony, filled with pain, denounces a reality that many Cubans describe as "dollarism or death," referring to the market economy system in dollars and MLC (freely convertible currency), from which those who do not receive remittances or income in foreign currency are excluded.
The contrast between the poverty of the man collecting spilled yogurt on the street and the abundance inside the store has generated numerous reactions. "There's everything here, but people like that gentleman and many others, about 90 percent of ordinary Cubans, cannot afford that type of food," says the voiceover, as it shows well-stocked shelves of beef, whole chicken, foreign brand cold cuts, cheeses, and other frozen products.
The scene has been interpreted by many as a metaphor for the failure of the Cuban socialist economic model, which has left a large part of the population vulnerable, while dependence on foreign currency grows and Mipyme stores proliferate unchecked.
An increasing number of Cubans watch in despair as the gap widens between those who have access to dollars and those who rely on salaries in increasingly devalued Cuban pesos. In this context, picking food off the ground does not seem like an isolated act, but rather a clear sign of the social deterioration that characterizes daily life on the island.
Growing poverty and dollarization in Cuba
The image of a worker picking up yogurt from the ground in front of a Mipyme store in Havana is not an isolated incident, but rather a reflection of the profound economic and social crisis that Cuba is experiencing.
According to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, 89% of Cuban families live in extreme poverty, and seven out of ten have stopped having breakfast, lunch, or dinner due to a lack of money or food.
The situation has worsened with the proliferation of Mipyme stores that sell products in dollars or Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), which are out of reach for most Cubans who receive their salaries in pesos.
This "partial dollarization" of the economy has been acknowledged by the very leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, who stated that Cuba will have to "live with dollarization" and announced a review of the monetary policy.
The shortage of food and basic products has led to an increase in begging and scenes of people searching for food in the trash. Despite government plans to reduce begging, the situation is worsening, impacting thousands of vulnerable citizens.
In this context, Mipyme stores, supplied with imported products and selling in foreign currency, have become a symbol of growing inequality. While some can access these products thanks to remittances from abroad, the majority of Cubans remain excluded, deepening the social and economic gap on the island
The scene of a worker collecting yogurt from the ground in front of a store overflowing with food encapsulates the paradox of an economy where abundance and need coexist side by side, reflecting the tensions and challenges faced by Cuban society today.
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