A video posted on social media shows the abandonment surrounding the Manzanillo train station in Granma, where trash and debris pile up next to a destroyed and looted park.
The author of the recording, shared on Tuesday by the page on Facebook "vivencias," returned to his neighborhood after two years of absence and described the scene as "a complete disaster."
The images depict the accumulation of waste from Martí Street to the end of the terminal, with mounds of debris next to a deteriorated revolutionary monument and sections of streets blocked by garbage, branches, and burned materials. At one point, there is a rusty barrel that serves as the only makeshift container.
One of the elements that drew the complainant's attention the most was the condition of the small park built in front of the express terminal, of which there is practically nothing left.
"They have even taken the hexagonal tiles from the floor. They took everything, lifted the floor, and took it away. Even the benches, everything, they took it all," he stated.
The complaint emerges three weeks after the resumption in mid-October of the train service between Bayamo and Manzanillo, which had been interrupted for months due to the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa.
When announcing the reopening, the director of the Granma Base Business Unit Railways, Yuritza Licea Ampudia, warned about the need to protect what has been recovered. "The little we have, and the tremendous effort it took to regain it, we must take care of," she expressed.
However, the images circulated from Manzanillo show the deterioration of the environment surrounding a railway facility that has just regained its connection with the provincial capital.
In April, the accumulation of garbage and debris blocked more than half of a rail crossing of the Bayamo-Havana line, a situation that one resident described as dangerous to human life.
In February, the broadcaster Radio Granma alerted about the proliferation of micro-dumps in the Gulf of Guacanayabo city and described the burning of garbage as a "dangerously frequent" practice. That same month, the official newspaper Granma admitted that municipalities were unable to ensure regular garbage collection due to a lack of fuel.
Bayamo, which for a long time was recognized as one of the cleanest cities in Cuba, also accumulates trash on its streets, according to complaints from its own residents.
The accumulation of garbage also poses a health risk, amidst a surge in cases of dengue, hepatitis, and the proliferation of vectors like mosquitoes and rodents.
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