The Cuban government has dismissed Labour and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito following her controversial claim that beggars in the country were “disguised” fraudsters rather than genuinely impoverished citizens.
In a terse statement issued Tuesday evening, the government announced Feito’s removal, citing her lack of “objectivity and sensitivity on topics that are currently central to political and governmental policy.” The decision came after her televised remarks on Monday sparked widespread outrage across social media, tapping into growing public frustration with Cuba’s prolonged economic crisis.
During her appearance, Feito had asserted: “We have seen people who appear to be beggars, but when you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people wear, they are disguised as beggars … In Cuba, there are no beggars. They have found an easy way of life, to make money and not to work as is appropriate.”
President Miguel Díaz-Canel directly rebuked her comments during his own address to the committee the following day, framing them as emblematic of a deeper governmental disconnect. “These people, who we sometimes describe as homeless or linked to begging, are actually concrete expressions of the social inequalities and the accumulated problems we face,” he stated. “The vulnerable are not our enemies.”
The minister’s dismissal underscores the sensitivity of poverty discourse in Cuba, where economic turmoil—marked by food shortages, inflation exceeding 30%, and a collapsing peso—has visibly increased street begging since 2020. Independent journalists and activists documented Feito’s remarks going viral alongside photos of malnourished Cubans scavenging through trash, starkly contradicting her claims.
Analysts note the president’s unusually swift reprimand reflects concerns over rising social unrest, with the Communist Party keen to distance itself from perceptions of elitism. As Cuba negotiates its worst economic crisis since the 1990s, the incident has reignited debates about inequality in a society that long prided itself on egalitarian ideals.
No immediate successor was named for Feito’s position. The labor ministry now faces calls to address systemic unemployment and welfare gaps that have forced many Cubans into informal survival economies.