The insects have even settled into the old books that contain residents’ registrations.
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, August 22, 2026 – Bedbugs have managed to accomplish in Guanabacoa what power outages, paper shortages, and staff shortages had already achieved many times by other means: close a public office. The Civil Registry of the Havana municipality remains out of service because of an invasion of these insects, workers at the office confirmed to several users this Friday.
“We are closed until further notice,” an employee explains from the entrance of the premises, located on San Francisco Street, at the corner of Máximo Gómez. The reason, she admits shortly afterward, is a “bedbug infestation.”
According to the employee, the closure could last “15 to 21 days,” although she did not specify when work to eliminate the insects began or what treatment is being applied inside the building.
The news has caused disbelief among some users, mainly because the office has very little furniture where, at first glance, the parasites could take refuge. “There are almost only plastic chairs in there,” one of them commented. But the answer appears to lie in an object that is much more abundant than the furniture: the books.
The Civil Registry’s old volumes, several of them cloth-bound and stored for decades, are reportedly infested, according to workers and users of the office. Bedbugs can hide in cracks and small crevices and can also take advantage of materials such as paper, cardboard, and fabric, meaning the historical archive offers more hiding places than the austerity of the furniture might suggest.
While the closure lasts, the employee says those affected can “go to any registry” in the capital to handle their affairs. But the solution turns out to be considerably simpler at the office entrance than in real life.
Two people who went to the Regla Civil Registry after finding the Guanabacoa office closed were unable to resolve their paperwork there, they told 14ymedio. The possibility of processing certain certificates at other offices does exist, especially when registrations have been digitized, but not all procedures can be transferred from one office to another without difficulties.
The episode adds a bureaucratic twist to an infestation that has been spreading through Havana for weeks. At the end of July, this newspaper documented the proliferation of bedbugs in homes in different municipalities of the capital, where mattresses and sofas began ending up directly in garbage dumps because of the impossibility of getting rid of the insects. Power outages, accumulated waste, and, above all, the difficulty of obtaining effective fumigation products have made the situation even more complicated.
Less than a month after those reports, the appearance of an infestation in a public building shows that the problem is no longer limited to bedrooms and household furniture. The insects have now reached a State archive, where they share space with documents that in some cases have been stored for decades.
Very close to the Registry, the office responsible for identity cards, located on Máximo Gómez at the corner of División, was also not operating this Friday. People who went there said that this office had also closed because of bedbugs. Users were told that it would possibly reopen on Monday.
The promise was met with caution. “That is not known for certain,” one of them said, accustomed to the office suspending services for other reasons, including a lack of materials to produce the documents. In a city where almost everything ends up becoming part of the crisis archive, even the insects seem to have discovered the Civil Registry.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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