A video shared on social media by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada shows the dramatic situation of a family in Mayarí, Holguín, who lost everything after the passage of Hurricane Melissa. In the images, recorded by someone on-site, the precarious conditions in which two elderly individuals and their son live can be seen, lacking dry mattresses and basic resources to survive.
"Those who lost everything are an elderly couple and their son, who can't manage on his own," recounts the person recording while showing the interior of the home, with open wooden walls and deteriorated ceilings. "The mattress is wet; they're sleeping there... look at the situation these people are living in, this is critical, critical, everything is soaked," he describes in the video.
According to the testimony, the affected woman "is blind, she can't see anything," and her husband "is crazy, he has no mind." "Everything here is soaked. With nothing, with nothing. Look at the situation these people are living in," insists the person recording the scene.
The situation of this family is not an isolated incident. In recent days, journalists and activists have documented numerous cases of victims in eastern Cuba who report not having received assistance.
In Songo, Santiago de Cuba, reporter Yosmany Mayeta Labrada reported the case of a pregnant mother with three children living “in extreme conditions” after the hurricane. “Caridad lives in extreme conditions: a dirt floor turned to mud, without resources, without a dry mattress, without official help,” Mayeta detailed, lamenting that “while those above live like kings, the people struggle in abandonment and mud.”
In the municipality of Cacocum, Holguín, activist Norge Ernesto Díaz Blak (Noly Black) displayed scenes of desolation in the Yaguabo community: flooded houses, floating belongings, dead animals, and families who “only have the clothes they were wearing”. “This is all I have,” says one of the affected individuals in her video, pointing to a backpack. “There is no mattress, no stove, nothing.”
Another viral report was that of Pilar, an elderly woman from the town of Juan Vicente, Mayarí, who lost her home completely. “Where am I going to live, my child, where? I spend the whole day crying, seeing the conditions I am in, seeing my little house,” she expressed tearfully in a video posted by the user Elchaco Romero, who started a campaign to help her from abroad.
The hurricane Melissa, which struck eastern Cuba forcefully at the end of October, left more than 1,300 total collapses and 16,464 affected homes, according to figures released by the Ministry of Construction (MICONS). However, numerous complaints on social media question the lack of transparency and assert that the actual damage is greater.
During a visit to Río Cauto, in Granma province, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel promised that “no one will be left abandoned” and that “the country will help them to recover.” However, in the most affected municipalities, the testimonies from residents contradict that statement.
In San Andrés, Holguín, the exiled doctor Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre reported the case of a mother with a disability and her child living under a thatched roof supported by wooden poles, without access to drinking water, food, or medical care. “The regime speaks of ‘victories’ and ‘revolutionary solidarity’, but no one has gone to see them,” Figueredo wrote on Facebook.
More than two weeks after the hurricane, stories of abandonment are being repeated in various parts of eastern Cuba. While the government promises "guaranteed assistance," help is not reaching many families who are surviving without mattresses, food, or safe roofs.
The testimonies shared by citizens, journalists, and independent activists provide a direct picture of the devastation and vulnerability of thousands of Cubans who today, literally, "survive abandoned and at the mercy of fate."
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