Jeanette Sardiña posted a video on Facebook denouncing the state of the garbage dump next to her building in Nuevo Vedado, Havana, where five garbage bins are completely overflowing, surrounded by litter scattered on the ground.
“Gentlemen, look at this. Horrible, horrible the trash dump next to my house. This is dreadful, absolutely dreadful,” Sardiña says at the beginning of the video while surveying the area.
The habanera describes how the wind drags the debris to the back of her building, which the residents themselves are forced to clean up due to the inaction of the authorities.
It also reports that the collection trucks are destroying the sidewalks as they pass: "The trucks break all the corners when collecting the garbage; this is here in Vedado, they are ruining the sidewalks."
The video concludes with a phrase that summarizes the weariness: "This is Cuba. The most beautiful part of the landscape is that flamboyant tree."
The comments on the post reflect a widespread indignation among the neighborhood residents.
Mónica García Menéndez warns that "the worst part is not the view, it’s the stench and the swarm of mosquitoes; every time it rains, it smells worse."
Celia Mariana Artes Visuales, who identifies as a resident of the area, reports that "even the sidewalks have been broken and turned into black swamps of trash and water" and describes the situation as "criminal."
Madelin López warns about the risk of leptospirosis: "If it weren't for the cats that keep the mice away, we would all have died from leptospirosis by now."
Beatriz Barreiro Paredes adds another health warning: "Now with the rain, things break down faster... especially organic matter... there will be consequences... epidemics."
Nuevo Vedado is neither an isolated case nor a recent one. In February 2023, the comedian Otto Ortiz documented a garbage dump in the area with the remark: "Nuevo Vedado is not falling behind when it comes to trash and filth."
In March 2026, the neighborhood was also the scene of casserole protests and local demonstrations due to power outages and the crisis of basic services.
The garbage collection crisis in Havana is structural. In February 2026, only 44 out of the 106 collection trucks in the capital were operational, while the city produces between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste per day.
In December 2025, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz admitted the institutional failure to address the waste collection crisis in the capital.
With the arrival of summer, the heat and humidity accelerate the decomposition of organic waste and increase the risk of diseases such as dengue, leptospirosis, and hepatitis A.
In response to the regime's inaction, some residents of Havana have chosen to burn trash bins as a form of protest, while others, like those in Nuevo Vedado, are organizing to clean up on their own without any institutional support.
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