A video published on Facebook by independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada shows a man eating directly from the trash in the street of Santiago de Cuba, in an image that the author himself titled "Between trash and oblivion: another harsh postcard from Santiago de Cuba."
The recording lasts only 18 seconds, and the only audible phrase is from the author while filming: "Look at that, there’s a man eating here, from the garbage."
The video clearly shows an elderly man, dressed in pants, a cap, and without a shirt, sitting on the sidewalk next to a pile of garbage, from which he picks something up and brings it to his mouth.
"That’s not how it is, buddy," the witness tells him as he walks by.
Several internet users reacted with pain to the post.
"That is throughout Cuba, I see them here in Matanzas, in Havana," said one.
"Nobody knows where we're going to end up," another lamented.
"It is a sad reality, and according to the foolish minister, those are beggars in disguise, because here in Cuba there are no beggars and no one eats from the garbage, what a pity," expressed a third person.
The woman was referring to the events of July 2025, when the then Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, stated before the National Assembly that in Cuba "there are no beggars," but rather people "disguised as beggars." The public's reaction was so strong that the official resigned 48 hours later.
The scene is not an isolated incident. Santiago de Cuba has a long series of similar images that document the neglect in which the regime has left the most vulnerable segments of the population: the elderly, the mentally ill, and the homeless who survive on the streets without any form of state assistance.
In May 2024, children began to shout at an elderly homeless man in a park in Santiago, "Don't eat garbage!". In December of that same year, a 75-year-old man was found surviving on scraps on Christmas Eve.
In January 2025, a young man was seen eating off the ground in the middle of the street, which led to requests for help on social media.
The activist Yasser Sosa Tamayo reported last September the visible increase of beggars, elderly individuals, and mentally ill people on Enramadas Street in Santiago de Cuba, summarizing the situation with a direct statement: "The real crazy ones are on the street".
The crisis depicted in these images has concrete figures. According to the VIII Report from the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, based on 1,344 interviews in 70 municipalities, 89% of the Cuban population lives in extreme poverty. Seven out of ten Cubans skip at least one meal a day due to a lack of food or money, a figure that rises to eight out of ten among those over 61 years old.
Retirement pensions do not exceed 10 dollars per month, the accumulated inflation since 2021 exceeds 500%, and the number of beggars, according to independent organizations, has quintupled in recent years.
Abandonment is not limited to Santiago. On April 1, an elderly woman named Maribel from Holguín, whose son has mental health issues, stated: "I went three days without eating", in a testimony that illustrates just how far the precarious situation has reached across the Island.
The chronic shortage of psychiatric medications, the accelerated aging of the population, and the massive emigration that has left thousands of elderly individuals without a supportive family network create a picture of helplessness that the Cuban state neither has the capacity nor the willingness to reverse.
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