To celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the assault on Moncada and the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth, the Cuban regime showcased its significant housing initiative this Sunday in Bayamo: the delivery of four modular homes made from shipping containers, located, where else, in the "26 de Julio" neighborhood.
With these four units, the province of Granma has a total of ten container homes, a figure that CMKX Radio Bayamo presented as progress in the Housing Program in a country where the housing deficit exceeds 929,000 homes and where in 2025 only 22% of the annual construction plan was completed: 2,382 out of the 10,795 planned.
The municipal director of Housing, Maidolis Blanco Vega, emphasized the symbolic significance of the moment, noting that the handovers coincided with National Rebellion Day and the centenary of the birth of the "leader of the Revolution." What was not mentioned is that, on a national scale, the container conversion program—which aims to reuse more than 3,500 units—had delivered only 133 houses throughout the country by April 2026, of which only 19 were fully completed.
The four families benefited in Bayamo were selected from individuals affected by weather events: a mother with three young children, a young woman who graduated from a foster home without parental support, and a world runner-up and Parapan American champion in weightlifting. Each home includes two bedrooms, a kitchen-dining area, a bathroom, and a small service patio with a washbasin, and was provided with beds, mattresses, sheets, clothing, a stove, pots, washing machines, blenders, and rechargeable fans.
One of the families that received a home, that of Luis Félix Hernández Labrada and Sandra Ramírez Garcés —parents of triplets Sabrina, Saraí, and Sairi, the first multiple birth of the year in Bayamo— expressed their gratitude: "We arrived at the house and were given a stove, pots, washing machines, mixers, several outfits for the girls, and rechargeable fans, and we are very grateful," Sandra said. That a family with newborn triplets must publicly thank for receiving a stove and some pots speaks volumes about the state of the household economy in Cuba.
The event was presided over by Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, the First Secretary of the Party in Granma, and Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez, the provincial governor, who cut the ceremonial ribbon with all the party solemnity required. Ortiz Barceló highlighted that "the transformation of shipping containers into homes is also a viable option given the current complexities of resources in the country." Translated from the official euphemism: the regime does not have materials to build conventional houses and resorts to whatever it can find.
What the first secretary of the Party also did not mention is that these homes are not free: each unit costs about 900,000 Cuban pesos and is financed through bank credit, although the payment procedures are still not entirely clear. She also did not refer to the technical warnings that the program has generated. Architect Abel Tablada publicly warned in May 2026 that metal containers can turn into an "oven" in tropical conditions if they do not have proper insulation and permanent air conditioning, something unfeasible in a country with chronic power outages. On social media, Cubans have come up with their own names for these constructions: "microwave," "solar ovens," and "modular saunas."
The situation in other provinces reinforces skepticism. According to the official press itself acknowledged in July 2026, in Sancti Spíritus, out of more than 100 planned container homes for this year, only 17 were in the assembly phase and none had been completed. Meanwhile, the regime celebrates in Bayamo with four houses and cuts ribbons in front of the cameras, as if ten containers across an entire province could be a solution for nearly a million families without proper housing in the country.
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