A spokesperson identified as pro-government sparked outrage on social media by publicly denouncing on social media that tons of mangoes are rotting in the sun in the municipality of Maisí, Guantánamo province, while the population cries out for food.
The author of the publication, Chely Tamayo, accompanied her text with images showing the ground of a farm completely covered with ripe fruits —yellow, orange, and reddish— without anyone collecting them.
"Here’s how the ground looks, painted in yellow! What appears to be a landscape is nothing more than a reflection of a brutal contradiction: tons of mangoes rotting under the sun, while the population cries out for food," wrote Tamayo.
The case that illustrates the complaint is that of Aparicio Samón Leyva, described as one of the largest mango producers of the credit and services cooperative "Luis Ramírez López" in Río Seco, Maisí.
Tamayo points out that the problem is not in the harvest but in the storage: "The lack of fuel is not an excuse; it is the bottleneck that turns an essential food item into waste."
The regime's spokesperson described the situation as "catastrophic and unacceptable" and demanded that agricultural and transport entities ensure the necessary diesel to move the fruit: "The farmer's effort collides with a bureaucratic and material wall."
Tamayo closed his publication with a phrase that sums up the paradox: "The people do not ask for alms, they ask that what the land gives be utilized. Collecting and selling this mango is not a luxury; it is an urgent necessity."
What makes the publication particularly striking is its origin: it does not come from a dissident or an independent media outlet, but from a voice that the system itself acknowledges as its own, reflecting the level of frustration that has built up even within the official apparatus.
Moreover, of course, the other contradiction is that while people beg, ask for food on the streets, or scavenge through garbage, the regime—which claims to protect the population—does little or nothing to collect such valuable food.
However, the scenario is not new.
The pattern repeats itself every season. In 2021, some images from the province of Granma went viral showing the soils saturated with fallen ripe mangoes.
That same year, the mango collection campaign in Guantánamo began on May 25 with a goal of processing around 5,000 tons by mid-July, but the shortage of diesel had already halted the transport of fruit in the municipality of Imías for three days earlier that same month.
In 2021, 12,800 pounds of mangoes spoiled in Camagüey due to the same collection failures. In 2023, tons of mangoes were wasted in Guantánamo due to inefficiencies in the production model.
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