Cuba Is Drowning in Trash Due to the U.S. Embargo – The New York Times

Cuba is facing a severe sanitation crisis, with the streets of Havana now littered with meter-high piles of trash stretching up to a quarter of a block. The government cites an acute fuel shortage—which arose after the U.S. administration cut off Havana’s access to oil—as the main cause of this critical situation. 

This is reported by The New York Times.

The problem is particularly acute in densely populated areas such as Central Havana and the Cerro municipality, where some informal dumps stretch up to 36 meters on the worst days. Due to the inaction of municipal services, residents are increasingly burning waste directly on the streets, which is causing additional concern among doctors, as toxic smoke can trigger neurological disorders in children. Amid the fuel crisis and the shutdown of enterprises, the authorities have enlisted military personnel and civilian employees of state-owned enterprises to clean the cities, yet the technical condition of the public utilities sector is rapidly deteriorating. Of the 106 garbage trucks in Havana—some of which were donated by Japan in 2019—only 44 remain operational due to a lack of spare parts for repairs.

Experts and industry economists emphasize that waste collection problems existed in Cuba even before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, particularly due to a chronic shortage of containers and a lack of management standards, as Prime Minister Manuel Marrero previously acknowledged. Currently, unsanitary conditions have triggered a sharp rise in the number of dangerous diseases, including dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya, and oropushu, as well as cases of leptospirosis due to the spread of rodents. Local medical workers openly express their exhaustion from living in filth, while residents themselves are sounding the alarm over the risk of a new large-scale wave of epidemics with the onset of the summer season.

Cuba is purchasing drones in preparation for war against the U.S. — Axios.

The U.S. and Cuba have returned to the negotiating table.

Cuba has responded to Trump’s declaration of a state of emergency.