A worker from the Forestry Company in the town of Camalote, municipality of Nuevitas, in Camagüey, publicly reported this Saturday that authorities accompanied by the police confiscated all his charcoal production, leaving him without the only source of income to support his family.
The affected individual, identified as Ramón Oro, described the events on his Facebook profile, accompanied by images and videos related to the incidents.
According to his testimony, the company itself allowed him to deliver a quota of coal and sell the surplus, but this time the inspectors arrived with police to intimidate him and confiscated all the production without exception.
"I, Ramón Oro, am a worker at the Forestry. They allow us to deliver the charcoal, and whatever is left we can sell, but they came accompanied by the police to intimidate us and confiscated everything from me," the man reported.
Oro also revealed that he is responsible for two elderly sick individuals. His father, Francisco Oro Guevara, whom he identifies as a fighter in the revolution, is bedridden, and according to the claimant, no one has come to assist him.
"This is the only job available in Tropezón. How do you expect me to survive if this is the only way I have to earn a living?" he asked.
The complaint sparked a wide public reaction. A relative of the affected person wrote in the comments: "These people are always the same; they can't stand to see anyone struggling to survive; meanwhile, they do nothing about those who are stealing and robbing."
Another user pointed out: "They are not removing coal. They are taking away hours of sacrifice and the only means those people have to bring a meal to their parents and medicine. Nothing touches their hearts."
A third comment was more direct: "All that's missing is the machete plan like Batista's guards."
The case contradicts the official version of the Camagüey authorities. In June, the municipal mayor Lázaro Echeverría Rodríguez stated that "we have not withdrawn or confiscated any sacks of coal from the people who are currently selling in our city."
At that moment, the official stated that the strategy was to apply a forced sale at the official price of 70 pesos per kilogram, compared to the 3,500 or 4,000 pesos of the informal market, without confiscating the production.
That same month, in Guáimaro, another municipality in Camagüey, the police and park rangers fined artisans who were attempting to produce or sell marabú charcoal to address local shortages.
Charcoal has become the de facto cooking fuel for thousands of Cuban families due to the collapse of the electricity supply and the disappearance of liquefied gas from the formal market.
The price of a 20-kilogram bag increased from between 900 and 1,400 pesos at the end of 2024 to between 3,200 and 5,000 pesos in various provinces, a figure that can represent almost half of a Cuban worker's monthly salary.
The paradox is that while workers like Ramón Oro see their only livelihood confiscated, a company from Camagüey exported over 150 tons of charcoal to Europe just in the first quarter of this year, with an annual goal of 4,000 tons, according to official data.
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