Latest news with #MiguelDiazCanel
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Cuban minister resigns after suggesting beggars are pretending
Cuban Labour and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito Cabrera has resigned after saying there are no beggars in Cuba, only people pretending to be. Cuba's presidency said in a post on social media on Wednesday that Feito had 'acknowledged her errors and submitted her resignation' over her 'lack of objectivity and sensitivity' in addressing issues that are 'at the centre of political and governmental management'. The news came a day after Feito made the comments about poverty in the island nation to deputies in a National Assembly committee. 'We have seen people, apparently beggars, [but] when you look at their hands, look at the clothes these people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars. They are not beggars,' Feito said. 'In Cuba, there are no beggars,' she said. The minister added that people cleaning car windscreens live 'easy' lives and they use the money they make to 'drink alcohol'. Feito also lashed out against those who search through rubbish dumps, saying they are recovering materials 'to resell and not pay tax'. The remarks quickly went viral, prompting calls for Feito's impeachment and a wave of criticism in a country experiencing a tough economic situation in recent years. Even Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was critical. Without mentioning her by name but referring to the meeting at the National Assembly committee in which Feito participated, Diaz-Canel said on his X account: 'The lack of sensitivity in addressing vulnerability is highly questionable. The revolution cannot leave anyone behind; that is our motto, our militant responsibility.' Cuba blames its economic woes on a Cold War-era United States trade embargo, which complicates financial transactions and the acquisition of essentials, such as fuel and spare parts. The US imposed the embargo in 1960 after the Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro. The embargo is widely criticised with 185 of 193 countries at the United Nations voting to condemn it. US President Donald Trump recently tightened sanctions on the island's Communist Party-run government, pledging to restore a 'tough' policy towards the Caribbean country. Former US President Barack Obama took considerable steps to ease tensions with Cuba during his time in office, including restoring US-Cuba relations and making the first visit by a US president to the country in 90 years. Cuba has also faced an energy crisis and blackouts in recent months as supplies of subsidised Venezuelan oil have become increasingly precarious as Venezuela grapples with its own economic woes. Last week, the US Department of State imposed sanctions against Diaz-Canel as well as the luxury high-rise Hotel Torre K in central Havana. Travel and tourism are important to Cuba's struggling economy with millions of tourists visiting the island nation each year. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Cuba had a gross domestic product of $9,296 per person in 2019, making it an upper middle income country.
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Cuban minister resigns after saying 'there are no beggars in Cuba'
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 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 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 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 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.
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Cuba minister resigns after saying her country has no beggars
A Cuban minister who sparked criticism after saying that there are no beggars in Cuba, only people disguised as such, resigned on Tuesday. Cuba's presidency said in a post on X that Minister of Labour and Social Security Marta Elena Feito Cabrera 'acknowledged her errors and submitted her resignation'. Feito made the on Monday before deputies in a National Assembly committee. The comments went viral, prompting calls for Feito's impeachment and a wave of criticism in a country experiencing a tough economic situation in recent years. Even Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was critical. Without mentioning her by name, but referring to the meeting at the National Assembly committee where Feito participated, Diaz-Canel said on his X account: 'the lack of sensitivity in addressing vulnerability is highly questionable. The revolution cannot leave anyone behind; that is our motto, our militant responsibility'. The economic crisis in Cuba has increased social vulnerability and led to unusual scenes for the island, such as – especially the elderly – begging or scavenging through garbage, or some cleaning windscreens at corners. 'We have seen people, apparently beggars, (but) when you look at their hands, look at the clothes these people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars, they are not beggars,' Feito said before the National Assembly committee. 'In Cuba there are no beggars.'
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cuban minister resigns after downplaying poverty
The labor minister in economically depressed Cuba resigned Tuesday amid an uproar over her claim that people rummaging through garbage cans were only pretending to be poor and not truly desperate. Such scenes of acute need are common in Cuba, especially in Havana, as people in the communist run country grapple with runaway inflation, meager wages and food shortages, causing some to resort to panhandling or eating out of the trash. The labor minister who denied this, Marta Elena Feito, who also oversees the social security system, "acknowledged her mistake and tendered her resignation," Cuban state media said Tuesday, adding that she had shown a "lack of objectivity and sensitivity." On Monday, Feito told a parliamentary committee meeting about measures to address poverty that people rummaging for food in garbage bins are in fact dressed up to look like beggars. "When you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars. They are not beggars. In Cuba, there are no beggars," she said in statements broadcast live on state television. Social media users in the communist nation reacted with outrage, posting photos of people eating out of trash cans, while economist Pedro Monreal commented on X that there are "people disguised as 'ministers'" in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the fray on X Tuesday to lambast Feito's "lack of sensitivity." He later told a parliamentary session that "none of us can act with arrogance, act with pretense, disconnected from the realities we live in." Beggars, added Diaz-Canel, are "concrete expressions of social inequalities and the problems" Cuba faces. Poverty levels have increased sharply as the Caribbean country reckons with its worst economic crisis in three decades, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel and daily power blackouts. Observers blame a combination of US sanctions, domestic mismanagement of the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic tanking the nation's vital tourist industry. Last year, the government said there were 189,000 families and 350,000 individuals out of a population of 9.7 million living in "vulnerable" conditions and benefiting from social assistance programs. AFP has observed a marked increase in the last two years of homeless people and beggars on the streets of a country where the average monthly salary is less than $20 at the unofficial exchange rate. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting 1.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2023. lp/val/mlr/dw/jgc
News.com.au
8 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Cuban president addresses anger over 'there are no beggars' claim
Cuba's president was forced to step in Tuesday after a minister's assertion that "there are no beggars" caused an uproar on the economic crisis-stricken island. Labor Minister Marta Elena Feito on Monday told a parliamentary committee meeting about measures to address poverty that people rummaging for food in garbage bins are in fact "disguised as beggars." "When you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars, they are not beggars. In Cuba, there are no beggars," she said in statements broadcast live on state television. Social media users in the communist nation reacted with outrage, posting photos of people eating out of trash cans, while economist Pedro Monreal commented on X that there are "people disguised as 'ministers'" in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the fray on X Tuesday to lambast Feito's "lack of sensitivity." He later told a parliamentary session that "none of us can act with arrogance, act with pretense, disconnected from the realities we live in." Beggars, added Diaz-Canel, are "concrete expressions of social inequalities and the problems" Cuba faces. Poverty levels have increased sharply as the Caribbean country reckons with its worst economic crisis in three decades, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel and daily power blackouts. Observers blame a combination of US sanctions, domestic mismanagement of the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic tanking the nation's vital tourist industry. Last year, the government said there were 189,000 families and 350,000 individuals out of a population of 9.7 million living in "vulnerable" conditions and benefiting from social assistance programs. AFP has observed a marked increase in the last two years of homeless people and beggars on the streets of a country where the average monthly salary is less than $20 at the unofficial exchange rate. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting 1.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2023.
