The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in Ciego de Ávila, Julio Gómez Casanova, attributed the halt of garbage collection services for over 10 days in the provincial capital to the U.S. embargo, announcing this Sunday that solid waste collection had resumed the day before.
In a post on Facebook, the official stated that the interruption was due to "lack of fuel - a direct consequence of the U.S. blockade -" and announced that during the week, priority will be given to the most affected areas, with the support of several entities that will join CostÁvila Pdl full-time, a Local Development Project created to manage solid waste collection, street sweeping, and the maintenance of green spaces.
"We call on the community to join the efforts of sanitation and landscaping in their neighborhoods. Keeping the city clean is the responsibility of everyone," urged the party leader of the central territory.
The reaction in the comments on the post was one of open skepticism. One citizen summed up the feelings of many with a succinct "Don't be shameless," while another attributed the resumption of service not to official management but to citizen pressure: "Thanks to the pressure from social media, the trash is being collected."
Another comment pointed to a double responsibility: "Aside from poor management, people do not cooperate, dumping waste in any corner."
There were also those who demanded that the available fuel be sent to the municipality of Ciro Redondo, which has also been affected, and who reported that the beginning of the school year forces children from nearby schools to walk through streets still littered with waste.
The justification for the embargo as a cause does not withstand scrutiny in context. The garbage collection crisis in Cuba is a structural problem that has progressively worsened since 2023, affecting the entire island.
In recent days, it has been possible to observe streets buried under garbage in Artemisa due to the halt of garbage collection trucks, a landfill in a residential area of Santa Clara that had gone 102 days without collection, as well as the Ancón beach in Trinidad, which closed the summer season covered in waste.
In Havana, central areas are buried under mountains of waste that block both vehicle and pedestrian traffic, in addition to posing health risks.
The official press acknowledged in April the existence of more than 150 dumping sites in the city of Avila and announced a plan to sweep over 200 kilometers of streets, without resulting in any visible improvements.
Days before, a Cuban resident abroad reported large piles of trash in front of the Guiñol Theatre, in the heart of the City of Portals.
Gómez has a documented pattern of attributing the province's problems to the embargo. In July, he stated that the lack of electricity, water, transportation, food, and connectivity are "direct consequences" of the embargo and the "energy siege" imposed by the United States government, in a speech reported by the official newspaper Granma.
Related videos:
Filed under: