A video posted on Friday on Facebook by Luis Lacosta displays the devastating condition of a waste collection point in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, Havana, after the authorities conducted a cleanup of garbage that had amassed over several weeks.
The images, captured in just 22 seconds, reveal stagnant and murky dark water, soil covered with mud mixed with plastic bags, debris, cardboard, broken bricks, and decomposing organic waste, with weeds growing among the trash.
"This is what was left after cleaning up weeks' worth of trash. Did they meet their goals? Is this what they call a job well done? Isn't this a disgusting mockery?" wrote Lacosta alongside the video.
The author also pointed out that a female official was accompanying the workers, taking notes during the operation, but that supervision did not lead to any real improvement: "And what about the fact that a girl was there taking notes, for what purpose? There is no way to do a good job; where is the quality and the awareness in this municipality?"
With direct irony towards the official discourse, Lacosta concluded his publication by asking: "Is imperialism also the cause of wrongdoing?"
San Miguel del Padrón has a history of complaints regarding waste management. In February of this year, residents reported that garbage trucks were dumping waste in front of a pre-university school, raising concerns about the proliferation of mosquitoes and rodents. In April, the municipality was documented as one of the hotspots for open burning of garbage in Havana.
The problem is not exclusive to that municipality: it reflects a structural crisis that paralyzes the entire capital. In May 2026, only 44 out of 106 garbage collection trucks were operational in Havana, with 58.5% of the fleet out of service. The city generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste per day, of which up to 23,814 m³ went uncollected daily.
The shortage of fuel, the deterioration of the vehicle fleet, the lack of containers —30,000 are needed each year but only 12,000 are delivered— and the low salaries of the staff are the issues acknowledged even by the government itself. In September 2025, the minister of CITMA publicly admitted that the garbage was “scattered all over” Havana.
One month later, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero stated that the cleanup efforts marked "a turning point," while 52 out of the 106 popular councils in the capital still had waste in the streets. The mountains of garbage in the streets of Havana persisted months after those statements.
The accumulation of waste also has direct consequences for public health: it promotes the proliferation of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a vector for dengue and chikungunya, diseases that kept Cuba in an epidemic phase during 2025 and 2026.
The video from San Miguel del Padrón illustrates a paradox that repeats throughout Havana: official collection operations are conducted under supervision, recorded on forms, and reported as achieved goals, yet the areas remain in equally deplorable conditions, as if the trash had merely been moved elsewhere.
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