The Cuban journalist known on social media as María Teresa, residing outside of Cuba, posted on Facebook on Friday images of her nearly 80-year-old grandparents cleaning the accumulated garbage in front of the Church of Santa Ana, located in the historic center of Camagüey, because the regime on the island does not provide waste collection services.
"These are my grandparents, nearly 80 years old, cleaning the trash bin at the corner of the church of Santa Ana in Camagüey, because the government doesn’t do it," the author wrote. Several commenters identified the elderly couple as Gilda and Enriquito.
Maria Teresa transformed her pain into a direct denunciation: “Their children and grandchildren left them. Their friends are gone. They carry the weight of all the garbage from that system, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.” She then demanded what she considers a fundamental obligation of the State: “Garbage collection is an essential public service that the Government must guarantee. THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE THERE FOR. In any free and democratic country, you wouldn’t last another day in power.”
He also warned that the efforts of his grandparents would be in vain: "In no time, the dump will reappear. People will throw away dead animals, debris, and all sorts of waste. […] They will come to collect it whenever they feel like it, if they even come at all.” He concluded with an image that encapsulates the tragedy of thousands of Cuban families: “[…] Cuba is a failed state where El Cangrejo [Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl Castro] wears Hermès accessories and negotiates the country that his grandfather gifted him, while my family members have to wipe the sweat off their brows after cleaning up the dump at the corner, shake hands, and return to a house that feels increasingly vast, to endure another hour of blackout and loneliness.”
The episode is not isolated. Camagüey is experiencing a prolonged waste management crisis: according to estimates related to the municipal company, only between 35% and 40% of the generated waste is collected, leaving between 77 and 143 tons daily uncollected out of a total of approximately 220 tons.
In July, a garbage dump on Las Palmas street caught fire in the early morning, causing explosions. In August, a resident on Camujiro street reported two months without garbage collection. In September, the collapse of the state service continued to flood the historic center, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site with waste.
The comments on the post reflected outrage and concern for the health of the elderly. "It's unbelievable what those who stay in this country are subjected to, especially the elderly," wrote one user. Another warned about health risks: "If having it around is bad, picking it up is worse; they’re exposing themselves to many diseases, they shouldn’t do it." A third voice summed up the general sentiment: "It's terrible what they're going through."
The plight of these elders also reflects the institutional neglect faced by older adults in Cuba. By the end of 2025, 2,519,823 Cubans—26.7% of the population—were aged 60 or older, according to official figures from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). By 2022, 17.4% of older adults were living alone, a proportion that specialists believe may have increased due to mass emigration. In 2025 alone, Cuba recorded a negative migration balance of 245,264 people, an exodus that has weakened the family support networks for the elderly.
A survey conducted between September and October 2025 by the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba (ASIC) and the Cuban Association of Self-Employed Workers and Entrepreneurs (ACTAE), involving 506 retirees from five provinces, revealed that 99% of participants considered their pension insufficient to meet basic needs and 90.7% continued to work after retirement.
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