A resident of the Isle of Youth purchased a tube of ground beef at a private business for 700 Cuban pesos and upon opening it, found the meat completely spoiled: it had a foul smell, a greenish color, and was fermented, according to a video published on TikTok this past Sunday by the user Yanet Diary (@el.diario70).
The author does not directly blame the vendors, but rather the blackouts that plague the area. "It's not so much the vendors as the lack of electricity that is mainly to blame, because we only have power for two hours a day every eight hours," she explains in the video.
When she pierced the tube in front of the camera, the contents came out fermented and looking spoiled, direct evidence of the total break in the cold chain. "Look at the condition it's in; it has a terrible smell and even looks green," Yanet describes while showing the product.
The electrical situation in the Isle of Youth has been steadily deteriorating. In February 2026, the territory operated under a schedule of four hours with power and four hours without, but by the end of May, power outages reached 18 hours a day due to a lack of fuel for its local generators, which operate independently of the National Electric System.
The geographical isolation further exacerbates the crisis. The author points out that the Isle of Youth "depends on a boat once a week for people to come and go to meet their needs," and that at the time of recording, the ferry was not operating. The ferry Perseverancia was suspended indefinitely in November 2024 while improvements were being made to the access channel of Batabanó, and in February 2026, there was another suspension due to unfavorable hydrometeorological conditions.
In light of this situation, Yanet wonders how many neighbors depended on that ground meat as their only source of food. "Just imagine how many people can't do anything and this was their only salvation for the day," she laments.
This case is not isolated. The pattern of spoiled food distributed in Cuba is recurrent and documented across multiple provinces: rotten picadillo delivered to children in Santiago de Cuba after Hurricane Melissa in November 2025, moldy rice in Bayamo in December 2025, peas mixed with insects and stones in Matanzas in April 2026, and rotten eggs offered to a pregnant woman in Santiago de Cuba in March 2026.
Yanet's question encapsulates the despair of thousands of Cubans: "Where have we ended up?"
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