In Cuba, no one is allowed to resign from their position; disgrace and dismissal always come from “the top.”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 16 July 2025 — Blackouts, inflation, and the economic crisis have ceased to be the talk in the streets in Cuba, at least for a few days. The focus of social anger has turned on the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó, who launched a bitter tirade last Monday against people who beg for money in public or rummage through garbage to find food. The outrage has reached a point where the official resigned, a cosmetic move in a regime that refuses to acknowledge the extent and severity of poverty on the island.
Before Parliament, Feitó lashed out at those people “disguised” as homeless people who extend their hands to beg for bills, clean windshields at a traffic light to extract a meager payment, or plunge their hands into trash cans filled with garbage and then shove a piece of bread or a piece of nearly rotten fruit into their mouths. The minister accused all these Cubans living in extreme vulnerability, many of whom were homeless, of being drunks, deceivers, and illegal immigrants. Before dozens of parliamentarians, she unleashed her insults without receiving any criticism, without anyone raising their hand to ask to speak and rebut her.
Luckily, we have social media. Shortly after that disastrous intervention, Feitó’s brief moments in front of the microphone went viral on the internet. There was no way to defend her words, not even from a regime accustomed to closing ranks around the nonsense uttered by its leaders. For a system that prides itself on being “of the humble and by the humble,” the contemptuous tone of the Minister of Labor, specifically toward the poorest, was indefensible. The damage control strategy then began to unfold, culminating in Feitó’s departure from the ministry. But the reasons that led her to assert that homeless people are “people who have found an easy way of life” remain.
Recognizing the misery in which a large part of the population lives or continuing to boast that 66 years later the scourge of homelessness has been eradicated, that is the dilemma
The island’s authorities are trapped in a dilemma with a difficult solution. Acknowledge the misery in which a large part of the population lives in an attempt to alleviate these hardships, or continue boasting that 66 years after that January of 1959, the scourge of poverty has been eradicated in Cuba, making our political and economic model superior to its capitalist nemesis. Putting numbers on the unprotected and needy would be admitting that the system has failed in one of its initial objectives and that the loss of civic and individual freedoms has not been worth it if it has not even managed to reduce the number of homeless people.
In Cuba, no one is allowed to resign. The fall into disgrace and dismissal always come from “on high,” an order from the highest leadership, capable of sacrificing any party cadre to protect itself. This is what happened on this occasion. Officialdom is now trying to counter Feitó’s nonsense with the words of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who, hours after the minister’s blunder and without mentioning her name, asserted that “the Revolution cannot leave anyone behind.” But the essence of the social security policy has been exposed. For Castroism, the poor are an annoying presence that reminds them and exposes their failure.
This may be the first time that a Cuban minister, in the last half-century, has resigned due to popular pressure stemming from publications in the independent press and dissemination on social media. The regime is no longer running solo on the path of the public narrative, and its stumbles, blunders, and profound reactionary nature are increasingly evident.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on DW and is republished with the author’s license.
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