According to a report from ‘NTV’, the parents of the minors “seriously” failed to fulfill their parental responsibility. The State washes its hands.
MIAMI, United States. – Cuban state television recognized the presence of minors who They spent the night in the gardens of the Muthu hotel, on 1st. and 70 (Playa, Havana) and that, in response, the Prosecutor’s Office opened criminal cases against his parents for “serious breach of parental responsibility,” according to a report of the propagandists Talía González and Lázaro Manuel Alonso in the National Television News (NTV).
“In all cases, criminal proceedings were filed against the parents of these children because this derives from a serious breach of parental responsibility (…), which is regulated in our Family Code and also in the Constitution of the Republic, in article 86,” said Deputy Attorney General Alina Montesinos Lee.
The report itself NTV He described that the presence of minors “on public roads during school hours or in the vicinity of shopping and gastronomic centers” has become “more notable” and attributed it “in most cases” to “irresponsibility of their guardians.” However, the journalists tried to minimize the relevance of the phenomenon and stressed that, although “extremely sensitive,” “it is not general in Cuban society.”
In the report, Yadelis Valencia, director of the Paseo Marítimo de 3ra. and 70—in front of the Muthu hotel—acknowledged that he had unsuccessfully alerted different authorities until the issue went viral. “I called several authorities looking for some support, some response on the issue,” he said. Asked if there was a delay, she responded: “Yes, it took a while. It took so long that when it came out on the networks, action was taken.”
The Ministry of Labor and Social Security, through Vice Minister Yaniris Hernández Vento, described the minors identified as coming from “dysfunctional families” and maintained that those responsible “do not fulfill the role” of guardianship and care. He added that “there are more than 14,000 social workers in the country today (…) not all positions are covered,” which limits prevention.
He NTV He also reported that, along with criminal proceedings, administrative measures are applied and visits to schools and homes have been activated. Deputy Prosecutor Montesinos specified that, upon detecting these cases, the Prosecutor’s Office “requires the labor and education authorities, as well as the MININT Directorate for Minors, to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the situation of this family,” and that “precautionary measures” have been imposed in accordance with the non-compliance.
As part of the institutional response, the delegate of the Belén Popular Council (Old Havana), Rolando Ginarte, admitted the transfer of minors to correctional facilities: “There are children who have been sent to the institution for minors, children who have been taken to the school for minors.”
The coverage of NTV comes after complaints on social networks and press releases that, since October 15, they warned of at least six minors sleeping for weeks in the gardens of the Muthu hotel, on 1st. and 70 (Beach), without effective response from the authorities.
Five days later, official spokesman Pedro Jorge Velázquez acknowledged in a Facebook post that the viral photo and the complaints about the children sleeping in the gardens of the Muthu hotel, in Playa, were “real” and assured that, after the image was widely disseminated, “a ‘collection’ was made” to take the minors to “their area.”
The television report emphasized sanctions for guardians—with criminal cases and precautionary measures—and referrals of children to “juvenile institutions,” while acknowledging delays in state action until the issue escalated on social networks. In parallel, the piece admitted prevention failures: “Alerts to the organizations that have the mission of responding to this sensitive issue do not always work,” said journalists from the NTV.
After hearing about the case of the children who slept in the gardens of the Muthu hotel, the deputy for the Playa municipality Carlos Miguel Pérez Reyes warned on Facebook that “reporting and ‘collecting’ the minors” did not resolve, “by itself, the root of the phenomenon” and that the institutions had to “provide comprehensive treatment to the situation.”
“It is necessary to evaluate whether Minors [el Consejo de Atención a Menores del MININT] has the necessary capabilities and how [se] It articulates, effectively, with Labor and Social Security, Public Health and local governments.”
He also noted that “the problem is not isolated” and that, “at least in the capital, it has spread to several points where children ask for money daily, even late into the night, without visible consequences for responsible adults.”
The official recognition of this panorama comes after the complaint released on October 15 by activists and independent media, who documented with testimonies and photos the presence of at least six minors sleeping “for weeks” in the gardens of the Muthu hotel, a few meters from 1st. and 70, without the authorities having intervened.
Journalist Yadira Albet wrote on her Facebook profile: “This situation is unacceptable. I share post by Mayelín Guevara and comments in the post original confirm that, indeed, these children are there.” The publication generated avalanches of comments, among them that of Lisbety Mirabal: “My God, you can see at least six children in the photo. I had never seen that before. Every day everything gets sadder.”
This Monday, Albert’s publication it no longer existed. Nevertheless, CubaNet copied some of the comments generated by the complaint before they disappeared from Facebook. In that forum, Internet user Beatriz Alonso assured that the minors were “from poor neighborhoods” in Marianao and added that some would be “children of imprisoned mothers or fathers who emigrated and left them with grandparents ‘who can’t even handle their souls’.” Another user, Jorge Gabriel Alfonso Font, summarized: “The Cuba they are leaving us is terrible.”
For his part, last Monday the official spokesperson Pedro Jorge Velázquez stressed on Facebook that the Muthu hotel was not “the only place in Havana” where there were “children begging for money or living on the street” and demanded that “the Cuban public press (…) be in charge of investigating this situation.”
UNICEF estimates that 9% of Cuban children suffer from food povertywhile the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) estimates that extreme poverty affects 89% of the island’s population. Independent organizations report that hundreds of minors beg or live on the streets, alone or with their parents, exposed to abuse and without effective protection.
The piece of NTV It suggests the activation of inter-institutional protocols and the application of sanctions, but leaves questions about the sustainability of the solutions—beyond punishment—and the guarantee of the rights of the minors involved.
The report itself admits “lack of a comprehensive evaluation that allows identifying and providing a definitive solution to each of the cases,” and emphasizes that “the support of institutions and timely actions can save the emotional stability and future of these children.”
