Cuban minister resigns after saying the country has no beggar

The minister had said there was no such thing as “lypa” in Cuba and people who went through the trash, basically, did this from choice to win “light money”, as she said, transmits Telegrafi.

Her comments were widely criticised by Cubans both inside and abroad, and prompted a reaction by the island's president, Miguel Díaz-Canel. She resigned soon afterward.

Poverty levels and food shortages have deteriorated in Cuba, while it continues to face a serious economic crisis.

Feitó-Cabrera made comments earlier this week at a National Assembly session, in which he spoke of people begging and looking at garbage bins in Cuba, reports Telegraph, broadcast Periscope.

She seemed to deny their existence by saying: “There are no beggars in Cuba. There are people who claim to be beggars to make easy money”.

Furthermore, it accused people who were looking through the trash as “illegal participants in recycling service”.

The minister clearly misjudged the anger and indignation that would trigger her comments and the move, in which they portrayed the country's leadership as insensitive, authoritarian and deeply disconnected from the dire economic problems of ordinary Cubans.

A number of Cuban activists and intellectuals published a letter demanding her departure, saying the comments were “an insult to the Cuban people”.

Cuban President then criticised Feitó-Cabrera at the parliamentary session é, though not to mention him by name, saying leadership cannot provide “with contempt” or be “cut off from people's realities”.

Cuban economist Pedro Montreal posted to X, saying there were <x0 persons disguised as ministers” in Cuba.

Feitó resignation Cabrera 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, their number has been self-aware to most Cubans amid the island's deep economic crisis. /Periscope/