The mayor of the municipality of Matanzas, Michel León Rodríguez, publicly blamed the U.S. embargo and Washington's sanctions for the accumulation of garbage that is overwhelming the city, in statements made last Wednesday on the program “Con Voz de Pueblo” from TV Yumurí.
"The impact of the blockade has been very brutal; not having the complete fuel supply at times, whether we want to admit it or not, has harmed us, and above all, it has led to a buildup of trash. I truly believe it has been very, very damaging," León Rodríguez stated before the cameras.
The official also noted that the latest measures adopted by the Trump administration "worsen" the economic situation of the municipality and make access to fuel even more difficult: "Fuel is very hard to come by now compared to the figures we had before. It is the hardest blow."
However, the full interview reveals a structural crisis that extends far beyond the fuel shortage. The Municipal Communal Company operates with a staffing deficit of over 39%: out of an approximate 1,525 workers, only 918 positions are filled.
The municipality has only 17 vehicles daily for waste collection among Comunales, Micons, and the Military Construction Company, and it needs an additional 60 to 200 liters of fuel per day to complete the deep sanitation routes, a quantity that is not always available.
The company is reporting accounting losses, cannot pay profits to its workers, and is accumulating debts in basic protection measures. "We still have debt for shoes, clothes... we have debts regarding raw materials and how we classify them still," acknowledged the manager.
The health consequences are clear. On May 4, an outbreak of hepatitis A was confirmed with 18 active cases in the Versalles neighborhood, an elevated area of the city where accumulated waste is washed away by rain into the Yumurí River. León Rodríguez himself warned that with the arrival of the rainy season, the situation will worsen.
On May 12, residents of Embarcadero Street reported entire blocks blocked by garbage, with mice and a foul odor, just meters away from the Comunales facilities.
The national context exacerbates the situation. The Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged that same Wednesday that Cuba has absolutely no fuel reserves for electricity generation: "We have no fuel, no diesel, only associated gas."
Although the mayor insisted on pointing to the embargo as the main cause, analysts and independent media indicate that the inefficient management of the state model, corruption, and 67 years of communist dictatorship are equally significant underlying causes of the crisis faced by the Cuban people.
The host of the program "Con Voz de Pueblo" summed up the seriousness of the situation with a phrase that the regime itself could not silence: "The collection of solid waste in Matanzas can no longer be justified."
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