A Cuban from Camagüey recorded himself in front of his house, at the corner of 20 de Mayo Street and Vázquez, introducing himself as the proud owner of a new "mipyme" dedicated to trash collection, charging 20 pesos per bag.
The 29-second clip, published on Facebook by user Omar Hernández, became an ironic portrayal of the collapse of the state waste collection service in Cuba.
"I started a new small business, yes, here I charge for throwing out garbage. I'm charging 20 pesos per bag," says the protagonist in a carefree tone.
"I am an enterprising man; now I'm going to take this to the social networks of the small and medium-sized enterprises so that people know I'm the kind of guy who likes to seek out money," he jokes, while pointing out a huge pile of trash on the corner that extends into both streets.
What Omar presents as a joke is, in fact, what the Cuban regime is implementing as an official solution.
This week it was reported that a micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise in the Isle of Youth began charging 100 Cuban pesos per month per household for trash collection in the Juan Delio Chacón Aldana neighborhood and the Sierra Caballos area.
In July, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality of Havana, a local project was launched that uses electric tricycles for door-to-door waste collection, with differentiated rates for homes, private businesses, and state entities, turning what has always been a free public service into a profitable activity.
The video from the resident of Camagüey reflects the frustration of a population that has been living with mountains of waste in the streets, sidewalks, and parks for months.
The causes are numerous: insufficient number of collection trucks, many of which are in poor condition; lack of containers and a shortage of fuel. All of this has paralyzed collection in multiple municipalities.
The result: the accumulation of garbage and the proliferation of pests associated with dengue, chikungunya and leptospirosis. The population is left with no choice but to burn waste in open air.
In the face of the collapse, the government resorted in June to an emergency measure: sending young military conscripts to pick up trash. The measure did not solve the problem. That same month, a video recorded in a block filled with waste went viral when someone ironically remarked, "This is resistance and creativity…", parodying the official slogan of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
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