Cuban Minister for Labour and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó-Cabrera, has been forced to resign from her post after she made comments in a parliamentary session which denied the existence of beggars on the Communist-run island.
The minister had said there was no such thing as “beggars” in Cuba and people going through rubbish were, in essence, doing so out of choice to make “easy money”, as she put it.
Her comments were widely criticised by Cubans at home and abroad, and prompted a response from the island’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel. She resigned soon after.
Poverty levels and food shortages have worsened in Cuba as it continues to grapple with a severe economic crisis.
Feitó-Cabrera made the comments earlier this week at a session of the National Assembly, in which she spoke about people begging and rummaging through dustbins in Cuba.
She appeared to deny their existence saying: “There are no beggars in Cuba. There are people pretending to be beggars to make easy money.”
Furthermore, she accused people searching through the rubbish of being “illegal participants in the recycling service”.
The minister clearly misjudged the outrage and anger her comments would cause and the extent to which they portrayed the country’s leadership as unfeeling, authoritarian and deeply disconnected from the dire economic struggles of ordinary Cubans.
A number of Cuban activists and intellectuals published a letter calling for her removal saying the comments were “an insult to the Cuban people”.
The Cuban president then criticised Feitó-Cabrera at the parliamentary session – albeit without mentioning her by name – saying the leadership could not “act with condescension” or be “disconnected from the realities” of the people.
Cuban economist Pedro Monreal posted on X saying that there were “people disguised as ministers” in Cuba.
Feitó-Cabrera’s resignation was accepted by the Cuban Communist Party and the government.
While the Cuban government does not publish official figures on the number of people begging, the rise in their number has been self-evident to most Cubans amid the island’s deep economic crisis.