An unusual and painful event shook Reparto Luz this weekend, in the city of Holguín, where a family had to wait more than 15 hours for the funeral services to collect the body of an elderly woman who had passed away in her home.
According to reports circulated on social media, the woman passed away around midnight, and by three in the afternoon the following day, no authorities or funeral personnel had arrived to move her.
After long hours of waiting, the family decided to remove the corpse from the house and leave the elderly woman's body lying on a bed placed outside in the doorway, while relatives and neighbors demanded answers and protested in the street.
The images and videos released showed the daughter of the deceased embracing her mother's body, engulfed in grief, along with other family members who decided to block the street in protest against what they called institutional neglect.
Amidst the outrage, some cries escaped from the throats of the mourners: "Look at what time it is, and no one from the government has come to show their face; it's all lies and promises."
"There is nothing here. The one with money in their pocket is the one who can. Those without it are eaten by the worms," protested a resident of Holguín, amidst the dismay of the neighbors, among whom there were voices that reaffirmed the complaint.
The case quickly became a symbol of outrage in the community. "If there is no dignity for the living, what can we expect for the dead?" questioned the activist Magdiel Jorge Castro on his social media.
Users on platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) described what happened as a demonstration of the collapse of public services on the island. Others lamented that even in death, citizens are not treated with respect.
The delay in the removal of the body sparked a scene of grief and anger that went beyond the family sphere. Some residents placed obstacles in the street as a sign of protest, while others joined in the outcry, visibly moved by the situation.
In Cuba, delays in funeral services are not unusual, due to resource shortages, lack of transportation, and institutional disorganization. However, the magnitude of this case, evidenced by the circulated images, has had a profound impact on public opinion.
For many, this fact not only reflects the material crisis the country is experiencing, but also the loss of basic values of respect towards life and death. "It's a atrocity that's difficult to publish, but even more atrocious is that it was left exposed for over 15 hours," lamented another internet user who shared the complaint.
The protest in Reparto Luz, marked by pain and helplessness, has become a metaphor for the abandonment felt by thousands of Cuban families in the face of a system incapable of ensuring dignity even in the final moments of existence.
The collapse of funeral services in Cuba
The outrage that erupted in Holguín is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a national crisis in funeral services that even the state-run press has begun to acknowledge.
In July 2025, the state broadcaster Radio Mayabeque admitted in a report that saying goodbye to a loved one in Cuba has become an “obstacle course”, characterized by material shortages, institutional neglect, and deep dehumanization.
According to that report, in the local funeral home, as in many others across the country, there are barely any minimum conditions for laying the deceased to rest: there are no fans, seating, or flowers, and the chapels are in ruins, dirty, and poorly lit.
The transfer to the cemetery can take hours —even more than a day— due to the lack of fuel and the shortage of vehicles, forcing families to keep the bodies under undignified conditions.
Coffins, often poorly assembled and with inadequate dimensions, are handed to the bereaved as wooden patches. Sometimes, the workers have to improvise in front of the family members, opening sealed lids with makeshift tools and then closing them “with whatever is available,” without any respect or solemnity.
The logistical chaos is evident in increasingly frequent scenes: mourners carrying coffins on foot, in wheelbarrows, cargo trucks, or even in makeshift hammocks, as happened in Imías, Guantánamo, with the body of a child last February.
In other cases, neighbors report waits of over 12 hours for the collection of bodies, as happened in Granma, where a family had to turn to social media to obtain a coffin and transportation for a deceased relative.
Cemeteries are not free from neglect either. In many cemeteries, there is no water, drainage, or lighting, and there have been reports of grave and human remains looting. Often, grave diggers require families to purchase cement on their own to seal the graves.
Although the government has announced the incorporation of electric hearses and the involvement of state-owned companies in vehicle production, these measures are insufficient in the face of the structural deterioration of the system.
The result is a scenario in which death, instead of being a moment of reflection and respect, becomes an experience marked by frustration, anger, and humiliation.
In the words of the official report itself, the reality is that in Cuba today "not even the final rest is guaranteed."
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