A video published on Facebook shows a gigantic pile of debris and garbage accumulated in the middle of a public street in Holguín, just a few meters away from a young computer club, a primary school, and food stalls.
The recording, lasting just 16 seconds, was shared by the user Javier Díaz and garnered over 14,600 views in just a few hours.
It reveals a huge pile of waste of all kinds, accumulated over days or perhaps weeks, as neighbors navigate around it, dodging the debris as part of their daily routine.
"It's Holguín, at the entrance to the exit of San Andrés," Díaz wrote when posting the video.
The location of the landfill is especially alarming from a health perspective.
The accumulation of waste next to an educational center and food stalls creates ideal conditions for the proliferation of mosquitoes and rodents, vectors of dengue, chikungunya, leptospirosis, and hepatitis. Cuba closed 2025 with at least 81,909 official cases of dengue and chikungunya and 65 fatalities, an outbreak that The New York Times directly linked to the waste crisis.
Holguín, which for decades prided itself on cleanliness in Cuba, has been in free fall for years. The state media Radio Angulo titled at the end of June: "Holguín, from one of the cleanest cities in Cuba to a landfill."
The deterioration is due to structural causes that the government has not addressed: the Municipal Services Company operates with a fleet of garbage collection trucks that is far below what is needed, lacking spare parts and facing a chronic staff shortage, in addition to a fuel crisis.
The chain of complaints in the city is extensive. In July, a dump caught fire on a main access road to the city, near the Alcides Pino neighborhood, and residents compared it to a war zone.
In May, content creator Ghabriel Pérez revealed that the land where the amusement park Los Caballitos operated for decades, one of the most beloved recreational spaces in the city, has turned into a landfill.
And just last week, the garbage blocked a street, threatening food vending spots.
In the absence of systematic waste collection, many residents have resorted to burning refuse as the only solution, which generates toxic fumes with respiratory and cardiovascular effects.
The government has not provided any solution to restore a regular waste collection service. In the meantime, schools, childcare centers, parks, food stalls, central streets, and sports facilities coexist with uncontrolled growing landfills, and the people of Holguín continue to await a response that never comes.
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