A video posted on Facebook by the Cuban content creator Alfredito Fominaya shows the interior of a public restroom in Cuba where a Bible is used as a substitute for toilet paper, an image that brutally encapsulates the material and moral crisis the island is experiencing under communism.
The clip, just 40 seconds long, is circulating on social media and has garnered over 11,500 views and 545 positive reactions.
"It's incredible that this is happening, a public bathroom that people clean themselves. Evidently, there is a destroyed morality when this occurs," Fominaya reacts in the video.
In the description of the post, the content creator goes further: "This is why we are in the situation we are. Besides misery, this. A nation that lacks moral consciousness due to turning its back on the Giver of Life, freedom, and prosperity."
The fact does not occur in a vacuum. Cuba suffers from a chronic toilet paper shortage crisis that has persisted for decades: the state-owned company Prosa, the only national producer, dedicates its manufacturing exclusively to the tourism sector, leaving the population without access.
In the informal market, a roll can cost up to 1,200 Cuban pesos, more than half of the minimum wage of 2,100 pesos.
Given this reality, Cubans have been resorting to old newspapers, notebooks, and any available paper as a substitute for years, as documented by most Cubans some time ago.
This month, journalist Yosmany Mayeta reported on the bathrooms of the Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, featuring rusted toilets and crumpled newspaper as the only available option.
The public restrooms in Havana, operated by retirees who charge one peso for urinating and three for defecating, lack soap, disinfectant, light bulbs, and brooms.
The religious angle of the video adds a layer of meaning that is particularly painful for believing Cubans.
The Cuban regime prohibited the distribution of Bibles on the island from 1969 to 2015, when that prohibition was lifted after 46 years of restriction.
In 2026, religious persecution has intensified: the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reported 231 repressive actions against religious freedom just in February, and the Observatory of Religious Freedom recorded 111 cases in April, according to a study on Christian persecution in Cuba.
Cuba ranks 24 on the 2026 World Watch List of persecution from the organization Open Doors.
Fominaya, who combines social advocacy with Christian faith, is not unfamiliar with documenting the daily deterioration of the island. On July 1, he published another viral video in which his children were sleeping on the floor during a blackout, unable to withstand the heat and mosquitoes.
The video of the Bible in the bathroom concludes with a phrase that encapsulates the sentiment of millions: "God bless my land."
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