The complaint on social networks warns that at least six minors have been sleeping for weeks in the gardens of the Muthu hotel, without the authorities having intervened.
MADRID, Spain.- Cuban journalist Yadira Albet denounced This Wednesday on social networks the presence of at least six children who, for weeks, have spent the night in the gardens of a hotel located in the 1st area. and 70, in the Playa municipality, Havana.
“This situation is unacceptable. I share Mayelín Guevara’s post and comments in the original post confirm that, indeed, these children are there,” Albet wrote on his Facebook profile.
According to the publication, the minors have been in this place for a month or more, sleeping in the gardens of the Muthu hotel.
The complaint is directed at “school institutions, children’s homes without filial protection, the Cuban State, the PNR and whoever may be interested.”
“Now they are abandoned children figuring out their lives. They have been around for a while. They come and go. Who is in charge?” the text questions.
The publication generated multiple comments from people who claim to have seen the minors in the area and who repeatedly alerted the local authorities without receiving a response.
“My God, in the photo you can see at least 6 children. I’ve never seen that before. Everything gets sadder every day,” commented Lisbety Mirabal.
For her part, Beatriz Alonso claimed to have spoken with some of the minors: “They are from poor neighborhoods, they come down from Marianao.” And he specified that he learned that they are children of imprisoned mothers or fathers who emigrated and left them with grandparents “who cannot even handle their souls.”
“First they were around the Business Center and it is true that they sleep there now and keep begging,” he added.
Alonso pointed out that he has warned on several occasions and has privately contacted authorities and deputies to warn about the situation: “There are cameras, hotel guards, the Playa authorities, since they were in the Business Center they have known about it.”
“The Cuba they are leaving us is terrible,” said another user, Jorge Gabriel Alfonso Font, in the same publication.
So far, no official statements have been made public by state institutions regarding the situation of these minors, who remain visible in a busy tourist area of the Cuban capital.
Child begging in Cuba
Child begging in Cuba, denied by the regime, has become visible and alarming. More and more minors wander through various areas in search of money or food, reflecting a collapsed social protection system and a deep economic crisis.
According to the National Office of Statistics and Information, year-on-year inflation closed 2024 at 24.88%, while food shortages worsen and salaries barely exceed 7,000 pesos per month. 9% of children suffer from food poverty, according to UNICEF, and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimates that extreme poverty affects 89% of the population.
Independent organizations report that hundreds of minors live on the streets or beg, alone or with their parents, exposed to abuse and completely unprotected. Despite this, the Government continues to extol its “social achievements” and offer insufficient programs. This reality threatens to perpetuate a cycle of generational poverty that directly impacts Cuban children.
