A video published this Tuesday on Instagram shows a devastating scene in Havana: elderly people, children, and adults in a state of extreme emaciation rummaging for onions among the waste of a garbage dump, which the creator of the images described as something "very sad and powerful."
The clip was recorded in what appears to be the area of Centro Habana, near the Zanja station, and was posted by the Instagram account calificando_criticando, which captured with their camera the desperation of several people—among them children and visibly emaciated elderly individuals—selecting the better-quality onions from the waste.
"Here we find a bunch of gentlemen, children, elderly people picking up the onions. Who could have been the unjust, selfish person to do this, to throw the onions in the garbage? This is outrageous," the author is heard saying, visibly indignant.
What is most striking in the images is the physical state of those participating in the scene: older men and women, alongside children, all extremely thin, competing to take home the least damaged onions.
The author furiously questioned why those who discarded the product did not choose to sell it at a lower price or distribute it differently: "Why didn't they sell it cheaper, do something? Why at this point just let the onions go to waste?"
In his comments, the author of the video made a public appeal: "Don't let things rot or go to waste. Please don't let things deteriorate."
And although he acknowledged the humiliation of the scene, he expressed relief: "In the end, I'm happy and content because, in a humbling way, many people today were able to solve their problem and got their onion for free."
According to the description, some people were chanting "Onion!" and word spread that someone had thrown the product in the landfill, triggering a rush to rescue it.
The scene is not an isolated incident. On April 9, just five days prior, a man was seen eating directly from the trash on the streets of Santiago de Cuba.
In December 2024, people picked up beans that were scattered on the street in that same city, including elementary school students in their school uniforms. In October 2025, children rummaged through piles of garbage in Pinar del Río in search of food.
The backdrop of these images is a food crisis that 80% of Cubans believe is worse than the Special Period of the 1990s, according to a survey from March 2026.
The Cuban Human Rights Observatory reports that 89% of the population lives in extreme poverty, with a cost of living of 40,000 pesos per month compared to an average salary of only 6,000 pesos. Seven out of ten Cubans skip at least one meal a day; among those over 61 years old, the figure rises to eight out of ten.
The pensions for retirees do not exceed 10 dollars per month, making it impossible to access basic products. Onions, despite having an official price cap of 200-250 pesos per kilogram set by Resolution 148/2025, were practically sold at 400 pesos per pound, almost 20% of a pensioner's monthly income.
Deaths from malnutrition increased by 74% between 2022 and 2023, and UNICEF indicates that one in ten Cuban children suffers from severe food insecurity, consuming only two of the eight essential food groups.
Meanwhile, the garbage crisis in Havana —aggravated by the lack of fuel for garbage collection trucks since late 2025— has created a brutal paradox: food that spoils due to power outages and the absence of refrigeration ends up in landfills, while the hungry population salvages it to survive.
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