Sad scene in Camagüey: "No person should end their days surrounded by waste."

A photograph published on Saturday on social media shows an elderly person sitting in complete darkness, surrounded by piles of trash, cardboard, bags, and waste, in a corner of the city of Camagüey.

The image was shared by independent journalist José L. Tan Estrada in his segment #TanteandoCuba. “An image that hurts, but also reflects a reality that many Cubans live daily. It's in Camagüey, but it could be anywhere in Cuba,” Tan Estrada wrote upon posting it. Some internet users who commented noted that it was Onda Street.

For the journalist, the scene goes far beyond the accumulated filth: "Behind this image lies much more than just accumulated dirt. There is poverty, vulnerability, institutional neglect, and people surviving in conditions that no human being should have to endure."

Tan Estrada pointed directly to the contradiction between the official discourse and the reality faced by the most vulnerable: "While the authorities speak of achievements, priorities, and social commitments, there are citizens who age without the most basic conditions to live with dignity."

The scene is not an isolated incident. Camagüey has been experiencing a prolonged waste collection crisis, which worsened in 2026. According to an estimation published in April by the independent media outlet El Toque, the city generates approximately 220 tons of waste daily, while sources linked to the Municipal Services Company indicated that only about 35% to 40% of the total generated is collected, leaving dozens of tons uncollected each day.

Authorities attribute the deficit to a fuel shortage and the deterioration of the state vehicle fleet. By the end of October, Tan Estrada had already reported a huge garbage dump on Finlay Avenue, in front of a 12-story building in the José Martí neighborhood, and days later documented garbage piling up next to the provincial headquarters of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The abandonment depicted in the photograph also has an institutional dimension that hits the elderly particularly hard. This Saturday, it emerged that elderly residents of the La Gloria neighborhood reported that they were not listed in the food distribution program for people over 65, and that the Social Services office remained closed, without visible identification or published hours. A 72-year-old woman from the Lenin neighborhood summarized the situation with a crushing statement: "I have never, ever seen the face of a social worker."

The pattern is repeating in other provinces. In Bayamo, a retired heart patient was registered as vulnerable but did not appear on the list when he went to collect his food module. On November 6, an elderly woman identified as Zoila was reported living alone on the outskirts of Sancti Spíritus, with decaying walls and without assistance from any official organization.

The demographic background intensifies the urgency. By the end of 2025, Cuba had 2,519,823 people aged 60 years or older, representing 26.7% of its total population of 9,434,593 inhabitants, making it the oldest country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The demographic dependency ratio reached 733 potentially dependent individuals for every 1,000 of working age. A union survey of 506 retirees across five provinces revealed that 99% considered their pension insufficient to cover food, housing, and medications, and that 90.7% continued to work after retirement to make ends meet.

The comments on Tan Estrada's post reflected the outrage of those who recognize this reality from within. One user noted that at that moment, there were two people living at the Lenin bus stop in Camagüey. Another wrote, "The situation is critical; a solution needs to be found for such neglect."

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimated in August 2026, after interviewing more than 1,300 people in 79 municipalities, that those over 70 years old account for 44% of people living on the streets in Cuba.

"The crisis of a country is also measured by the way it treats its elderly and those who are most in need of protection," concluded Tan Estrada in his post.