Just a few meters from the headquarters of the Cuban regime in Revolution Square, three homeless Cubans survive in a wooded area outdoors, relying on the collection of recyclable materials that they sell to get by.
Luis Leiva Marín, Juan Carlo, and another man, who is 57 years old, stated to the portal Cubanet that they have been in that place for at least a year and they are already like a family.
They protect their belongings under banana leaves and have improvised a space where they cook, wash their clothes, and keep the raw materials – cans and plastics – that they collect daily to sell, they told the news portal.
"I sell plastics, raw materials, I'm looking for my can, my plastic and to sell," explained Luis Leiva Marín, who recounted that after a divorce in Florencia, Morón, he went to Havana and ended up living on the street.
"We are united, we are brothers of life. We are not going to let ourselves die, one peels some things, the bread, one peels a root vegetable, we make coffee," they expressed.
The 57-year-old man insisted that as long as he has strength, he will continue fighting to earn a living, while showing how they store water in plastic bottles for bathing and cooking. "I fight for 20 pesos because I don't want to beg," he noted.
For his part, Juan Carlo said that he arrived in Havana from Santiago de Cuba. "Things are worse in Santiago, here it is better. This little grove is already our home," he said resignedly.
Indigence has skyrocketed in Cuba since 2021 due to the implementation of failed economic policies that have pushed the majority of the population into extreme poverty and young people towards migration routes.
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