According to independent media outlet CubaNet, a growing number of Cubans are being forced to scavenge through garbage for food and survival. Reported on wednesday.
Cuba has endured a devastating humanitarian crisis resulting from more than 60 years of communism under the dictatorial Castro regime. Gross mismanagement has led to the country's population declining and sparked the worst migration crisis in Cuba's history.
About 90% of the remaining population is currently Extreme poverty Cuba's crumbling infrastructure exacerbates inhumane living conditions: power outages and shortages of water, food, medicine and other supplies are frequent, and Cubans cannot access adequate medical care.
Cuba's crumbling infrastructure has also affected the country's waste management services, which are now barely functional and are overflowing with trash. Accumulation Garbage strewn on the streets of Havana.
The proliferation of garbage dumps, extreme poverty, food shortages and hunger undulation Popularity of Buzzos, Or “divers” – people who desperately search through piles of trash to find food or to sell as food. Divers can reportedly earn just $17 in a “good” month.
“They throw good things in the trash. Look, this bread is the best,” a Cuban woman told Cubanet as she rummaged through trash on the street in central Havana. “And I also found a pumpkin.”
An elderly Cuban man told the media that in addition to “food” there was also “jeans, shoes and trousers” in the rubbish.
“If we see pizza we pick it up. If we see spaghetti we pick it up. We pick up rice and chicken because that's our life,” the man said.
The elderly man noted the dire situation in Cuba, exacerbated by skyrocketing inflation of food and other basic goods, and stressed that he was barely surviving by selling whatever he could find.
“The cost of living is so high now,” he explained. “A loaf of bread with just ham costs 100 pesos. [$4.16]How much money do you need to survive? It has to be a potted plant. Nobody here lives on 500 or 600 pesos. [$20.82 – $24.99].”
A man who described himself as a “professional, self-employed diver” told CubaNet newspaper that not everyone is in such a desperate situation, and asserted that “even if you don't want to, you have to dive.”
“Situations force you to do something. You don't have to steal from someone,” another elderly man told Cubanet as he searched through piles of rubble in a corner.
CubaNet stressed in its report that the growing mountains of garbage and the desperate Cubans searching for food among them is not a situation unique to Havana. Published A report published in February said more than 70 people gather at a garbage dump near a Havana highway every day in search of food.
According to Cubanet, the group has made the dump their “home,” finding usable items and many materials among the rubbish that they later sell on the street.
The rise in desperate Cubans scavenging through trash resembles the situation in Venezuela under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, where the same policies drove 15 percent of the country's population into poverty. eat From the garbage to survive.
Especially the number of Venezuelans who have been forced to pick food from the garbage. spike The period between 2014 and 2017 was the height of the humanitarian crisis caused by the inevitable collapse of Venezuela's socialism.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
