A video of just 20 seconds published on Facebook by a Cuban identified as Yicsi Garcia became one of the most stark testimonies of citizen frustration on the island.
Filmed from inside a house, it showcased the contrast between her well-maintained property and piles of garbage and debris on the street outside the fence.
"This is how Cuba is... I really like things to be clean and beautiful," says the woman before expressing her feelings: "What a punishment, what a punishment it has been to stay in this country, what a punishment not to have left, even if it meant crossing the sea, even if I had been eaten by sharks. No one expected this, no one expected it to be like this," she said in the video that sums up in a few words what thousands of Cubans who have not emigrated feel.
The post reads: "And without expecting anything from those who are responsible. Only a miracle from God to heal this land," a sentence that directly addresses the government’s responsibility without naming it.
What the video shows is not an isolated case. Havana is facing an unprecedented garbage crisis: only 44 of the 106 necessary garbage collection trucks are operational, due to a lack of diesel and the deterioration of the vehicle fleet.
The capital generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste per day, but only 68% of that amount is collected. The rest remains on the streets, turning areas such as Neptuno, Monte, San José, and Belascoaín into hotspots for infection and debris.
In light of the service collapse, residents began to burn garbage in public spaces, a practice that releases toxic smoke containing dioxins and furans. On April 9, the door of a Havana parish was charred by one of those burns.
The Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment, Armando Rodríguez Batista, declared on February 24 that "we do not incite or promote the open burning of solid waste without the appropriate safety measures as a regular practice," but did not provide concrete solutions.
The regime launched a "Cleanup Operation" with 49 measures implemented between November 2025 and February 2026, without visible results for the citizens.
Yicsi Garcia's outpouring of emotions over not having emigrated —even at the risk of dying at sea— reflects the mood of those who remained while over 1.7 million Cubans have left the island since 2021.
This massive exodus has emptied entire neighborhoods and left Cuba as the country with the highest number of asylum requests in Brazil in 2025, with 41,919 applications, surpassing even the Venezuelans.
According to demographer Albizu-Campos, the Cuban population could have decreased by 24% since 2021, reaching just over eight million inhabitants by the end of 2024, compared to the 9.6 million recorded by the National Assembly in 2025.
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