A tragic discovery was made this Saturday morning in the city of Pinar del Río, as a newborn baby was found dead in a garbage dump on Retiro Street.
According to activist Diasniurka Salcedo Verdecia, the child was wrapped in a bag of nylon. The Facebook profile “El guardian del Aliento” detailed that the little boy was found inside a garbage tank located on Rosario and Retiro streets. The discovery was made by a man who was sorting through the trash.
The profile is now calling on Cuban women who do not want their children to hand them over to State Agencies responsible for adoption, noting that there are couples unable to have children who are eager to adopt. This incident is not an isolated one, as unwanted pregnancies have reportedly increased due to the lack of contraceptives and difficulties in accessing abortion resources. This is happening in the midst of a growing economic and values crisis.
Sadly, cases of newborns being abandoned in garbage dumps have been on the rise in Cuba, with many of them being found dead. Just last month, another newborn baby was found dead in a garbage tank in Old Havana. In March of this year, a shocking case was reported when a newborn baby was found by a custodian in areas of the Héctor Ruiz Pérez Provincial Sports Initiation School. The mother, a student at the institution, allegedly gave birth secretly at school and threw the newborn from the second floor, causing severe injuries.
In the span of a few weeks at the end of 2022, the bodies of two babies were found, one in Havana and the other in Las Tunas. The heartbreaking trend of newborns being abandoned and left to perish continues to be an ongoing issue in Cuba. The authorities have taken the baby’s body to Havana in an effort to determine who the mother is.