A Cuban waiting in a gas line captured on video the moment a funeral procession passed in front of her with the coffin being carried on a cart pulled by a tricycle, while the mourners walked alongside.
The images, shared on Facebook by Barbara Pavon, garnered over 20,000 views within a few hours and sparked a wave of outrage.
In the video, the author cannot hide her astonishment. "Look, a wake, a wake, and they're all walking. Look at the corpse. Oh, Lord, may that gentleman, lady, whoever it is, rest in peace," she exclaims as the camera follows the cart's movement.
The scene condenses in 35 seconds one of the most acute crises the Island is experiencing: the collapse of funeral services in Cuba.
The comments on the post reflect the accumulated desperation. "If the living are suffering, imagine the dead! May God have mercy on our homeland!" wrote one user.
Another person remarked, "What a sadness it is to see where our Cuba has come, even in the final moments, the suffering of the citizens is not respected." A third one summed up the situation with bitter irony: "Social justice, according to the comrades of the PCC."
"There's nothing to be surprised about in Cuba anymore; many people live without food, without water, and without milk for the innocent or the elderly. There's no money to pay for anything, and there's hardly ever electricity. If you go to a hospital, there's nothing," wrote another user, summarizing the widespread collapse the country has been experiencing under six decades of dictatorship.
In addition to the extreme shortage of fuel—which is believed to be the reason for transporting the body in a cart—the decline of the hearse fleet in Cuba has been worsening for years.
In Ciego de Ávila, only eight of the 19 funeral vehicles are operational; in Camagüey, there is barely one functioning for the entire city.
In light of this situation, families have had to improvise: in Banes (Holguín), they used a tractor with parts from a truck as a hearse; in Bauta, a tricycle; in Manzanillo and Santiago de Cuba, cargo trucks; in Mayabeque, families carried the coffin on foot for kilometers.
A more recent and unusual case occurred in Bayamo, Granma, where a cooperative began offering funeral services in a horse-drawn carriage as an alternative due to the fuel shortage.
The fuel crisis worsens the situation. In the informal market, the price of a liter of gasoline reached between 3,500 and 8,000 Cuban pesos in June. Only three state-owned gas stations are operating in Havana, with wait times of up to 15 hours and a limit of 20 liters per person.
Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged in April that Cuba "absolutely lacks fuel for almost everything," and Minister Vicente de la O Levy confirmed in May that "we have no fuel, no diesel."
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