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Brenda López, co-founder of the "Hands Off Cuba" committee and resident of Oakland, stated on the program Cuadrando la Caja that the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles is "much more critical" than what she has observed during all her visits to Cuba, remarks that contrast with independent data showing a sustained worsening of the situation on the island.
López participated in the television program hosted by Marxlenin Pérez Valdés, a doctor in Philosophy and History and a professor of Marxism at the University of Havana, in a show defined as "a television proposal to debate, question, and reach consensus from the perspective of Cuban socialism."
"That's another thing that always surprises me. I hear things like, 'Oh, in Cuba, things are critical, there are many people living on the streets,' but what I see where I live is far more critical than what I have seen in many... in all the visits I've made to Cuba," declared the 30-year-old activist.
López specifically mentioned the Skid Row area as the epicenter of the crisis: "In Los Angeles, there is an area within Los Angeles called Skid Row, and it is basically a community of homeless people, many of whom have substance issues and lack resources."
The activist, who works at a rehabilitation center, attributed the problem to cuts in social services: "When our government takes more money away from social and health resources, people have nowhere to go, nowhere to seek care, and they end up on the streets."
However, independent data on Cuba contradict the picture presented by López. According to a 2024 census analyzed by sociologist Elaine Acosta, the homeless population in Cuba has tripled compared to previous figures, with the majority being elderly. In Camagüey, health authorities identified at least 59 individuals displaying wandering behavior in 2025, warning that the actual number could be higher.
The official Cuban press has begun to blame the embargo for the increase in homeless people on the streets, while independent activists document individuals sleeping in doorways and terminals in Havana without access to basic services.
López's statements are part of a communication strategy by the Cuban regime to use sympathetic foreign voices to contrast living conditions in Cuba with those in capitalist countries. His appearance on Cuadrando la Caja comes weeks after the Nuestra América Convoy brought between 500 and 650 activists from 33 countries to the island in March 2026, amid an energy crisis with blackouts lasting up to 20 hours a day.
Beyond the comparison with Cuba, López provided a broad diagnosis of the labor situation in the United States: "We are in a situation where people can no longer survive on one job. We have two, three jobs. From my own experience, I have two jobs and even then, I only manage to scrape by to pay my rent."
He also noted that only 5% of the U.S. population is unionized, attributing the weakness of the labor movement to the dismantling that began under the Reagan administration, and that most people of his generation "know we will never be able to buy a house, because most houses cost more than a million dollars."
The reality that López omits in his comparison is that almost nine out of ten Cubans have to figure out how to avoid going hungry on an island where the humanitarian crisis is devouring the population after 67 years of communist dictatorship.
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