A video published this Saturday on social media shows the corner of Monte and Águila, in the Jesús María neighborhood, turned into an open-air dump, with solid waste completely covering the sidewalk of a building with neoclassical columns.
The images, shared by user Maykel Chapotin, show plastic bottles, cans, black bags, boxes, debris, and broken wood piled up in front of what was one of the most famous businesses of the republican capital, the El Cadete store, a leather goods shop located at Monte 401 that for decades was a symbol of popular commerce in Havana.
Neighbors who commented on the video immediately recognized the place. "Corner of the El Cadete store," one user wrote.
Another described the site as a "pigsty full of disease-ridden rats," while a third person claimed, "Why don’t they clean those streets? Find a place, it brings diseases."
One comment pointed directly at the regime with irony: "Continuity, they marched by the thousands last May 1st... that's their turn."
Monte Street, officially known as Avenida Máximo Gómez, was one of the most prosperous commercial thoroughfares in Havana during the Republic (1902-1958), featuring shoe stores, bazaars, bakeries, hardware stores, pharmacies, and jewelry shops.
After more than six decades of a socialist system, it has become one of the most dilapidated areas of the city.
What happens at that corner is not an isolated incident, but rather a reflection of a structural health crisis that threatens the health of the people in Havana.
In February, it was revealed that only 44 out of the 106 garbage collection trucks in the capital are operational, just 41% of the fleet, due to a shortage of diesel and mechanical failure.
The city generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste daily, but up to 23,814 cubic meters remain uncollected each day.
The government of Miguel Díaz-Canel itself acknowledged in December 2025 that it cannot clean the capital nor pay the street sweepers a decent wage.
In June, young servicemen were mobilized to collect trash with shovels and bags, yet the situation did not improve sustainably.
The same intersection of Monte and Águila was already the scene of a fire caused by the burning of a dumpster on April 1, which shows that the problem continues to recur without a solution.
The health consequences are severe. The Food Monitor Program warned that flies, cockroaches, rats, and other vectors carry pathogenic microorganisms to the food consumed by the population.
A biologist consulted by that organization warned that current conditions could lead to an outbreak of gastroenteritis in Havana "at any moment."
Cuba closed 2025 with at least 81,909 cases of dengue and chikungunya and 65 official deaths, an outbreak that The New York Times directly linked to the garbage crisis. In 2026, the outbreak remains active with over 2,800 cases in 134 municipalities.
The historian Julio César González Pagés summarized the situation with an image that says it all: "Havana among trash heaps and feces arrives in summer with little water, hygiene, and medicine, reviving the worst of its colonial era."
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