Dozens of people rushed to catch 50 Cuban peso bills thrown into the air during a conga in Santiago de Cuba on Friday, in a scene captured on video by the user on Facebook "El King otra vez," who shared the exact moment of the event.
People on the street were enjoying the music when suddenly someone threw bills into the air. The musicians stopped, and everyone began trying to catch the floating bills.
The images show raised arms trying to reach the flying bills, while other people are crouched down or on their knees searching for them among the dirty street floor.
The celebration is part of the festivities leading up to September 8th, the day of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, the patroness of Cuba.
Independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada commented on the incident on his Facebook page under the title "Poverty Without Makeup."
"There are images that seem like a celebration until one stops to look at what is really happening," he wrote, and noted: "I don't criticize those who ran after money. I criticize the reality that has led so many people to need it."
What makes the scene especially revealing is the actual value of those bills. At the informal exchange rate in effect on Friday - about 683 Cuban pesos per dollar -, 50 pesos amount to only 0.07 dollars, less than a cent. However, the prevailing poverty and the shortage of physical cash turn any bill into a sought-after commodity.
Mayeta Labrada pointed out the paradox precisely: "The irony is even greater: cash is scarce in the ATMs, but when a few bills fly through a street in Santiago, there are plenty of hands trying to grab them."
The journalist also raised an uncomfortable question about the regime's double standard: what would have happened if the same action had been carried out by a well-known opponent. "The political interpretation would probably have been immediate. I wouldn't be surprised to hear accusations of 'provocation,' 'counter-revolutionary show,' or even some alleged maneuver funded from the United States."
For him, what this sad event reveals is the desperation that can lie beneath a celebration. "Let the conga continue to play, but may the drum not prevent us from hearing the sound of poverty," he concluded.
Cuba is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, with staggering figures. The year-on-year inflation in the Cuban market reached 20.70% in July, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). The main driver of the monthly increase was food and non-alcoholic beverages.
The devaluation of the national currency has reached the point where 1,000 pesos are equivalent to less than 1.50 dollars at the informal exchange rate, while the official average salary is not even 12 dollars per month.
The economist Javier Pérez Capdevila estimated that a person needs around 96,060 pesos per month to cover basic needs, of which 70,070 pesos would be solely for food.
This is compounded by the problem of cash shortages in Cuba, where a parallel market for physical bills has emerged that charged commissions between 30% and 45% just to obtain cash in July.
In Santiago de Cuba, private businesses have started to refuse low-denomination bills -of one, five, ten, and twenty pesos-, a practice that the Credit and Commerce Bank had to declare illegal in August.
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