He went out to throw away the trash and found an elderly man chewing on scraps: A sad testament to the misery in Cuba

A post on social media has moved thousands of Cubans both inside and outside the country, as it recounts a scene of extreme poverty that reflects the deep economic and humanitarian crisis facing Cuba.

The text, shared by the user Jorge Luis Marrero Carbajal on Facebook, describes how, while going out to take out the trash, he found an elderly man naked inside the dumpster, chewing on leftover food.

“I went to take out the trash. And, surprise: inside the bin was a naked old man, chewing on scraps like a stray cat. I’ve been seeing people rummaging through the trash for months, but this was too much. The pain was so intense that I lost my memory for a few seconds”, wrote Marrero in a post that quickly went viral.

The story reflects a reality that repeats itself daily in many Cuban cities, where the lack of food, medicine, and basic resources has led hundreds of people —including the elderly and children— to search for food among the waste.

“I have shielded my sensitivity with the topic. But this was too much,” confesses Marrero, who asserts that, in recent months, seeing people rummaging through trash bins has become something “common and daily.”

The scene provoked a wave of reactions among Cuban users, many of whom shared similar experiences and criticized the official silence regarding increasingly visible poverty.

Marrero's testimony adds to numerous citizen complaints about the severe food and health crisis affecting the country. In cities like Holguín, Matanzas, and Santiago de Cuba, social media has become the primary platform for exposing cases of homelessness, malnutrition, and neglect.

Economists consulted by independent media warn that Cuba is going through one of its worst periods in six decades: uncontrollable inflation, shortages of basic goods, prolonged blackouts, and a collapsed social assistance system.

The Ministry of Domestic Trade itself has acknowledged delays in the delivery of the basic food basket and failures in the distribution of food, while black market prices soar every week.

In contrast to the wave of indignation generated by the testimony, state media continue to deny the rise in homelessness in Cuba. They have also not published reports on the situation of the homeless, despite increasing complaints about poverty on social media.

"I don't want to see something like this again. The pain is too great," Marrero concludes in his post, which has already garnered thousands of comments and reactions.

For many users, this fact is the raw portrait of a country crumbling in silence, where human dignity is threatened daily by hunger, neglect, and institutional indifference.