The Cuban regime formalized a legal norm that regulates the attention to people with “wandering behavior”, a state euphemism to refer to those who beg, live in the streets or have no family support.
This is the 10056/2025 agreement of the Council of Ministers published in the official Gazetteand already in force since April 28, which defines this phenomenon as “a disorder of multicausal human behavior” that implies “instability and insecurity at home, lack of self -care and economic autonomy, family care or protection, as well as a favorable life project”.
The pattern regulations “act with those who, without having associated intellectual or mental disability, refuse to prophylactic work,” he said Belkis Delgado CáceresDirector of Prevention, Assistance and Social Work of the Ministry of labor and Social Security (MTSS), to the official newspaper Granma.
The Cuban regime approach avoids speaking openly of extreme poverty or destitutionusing euphemisms that dilute the seriousness of the problem and its structural origin.
How is attention structured?
Despite being a complex social phenomenon, the control of the “roasts” remains in the hands of local power, instructs the legal norm recently approved by the government.
The provincial governor is in charge of coordinating the system, while the municipal mayor will be the one who constitutes and leads multidisciplinary teams, in order to classify cases and define strategies for care, reintegration and monitoring.
The groups will be composed of social workers, public Health personnel and the police. When it comes to minors, education officials, officers of the Directorate of Children of the Ministry of Interior are added and, if the nature of the matter requires, representatives of the Attorney General’s Office and the Popular Court in the municipality.
These groups will be in charge of “the evaluation, classification and design of sustainable solution strategies in the care of people with wandering behavior, guaranteeing reintegration into the family nucleus, and the control and monitoring of … those people who roam territories that are not those of their origin and, therefore, it is necessary to return them to their place of residence,” said Delgado.
The approach is clear: containment and “return” to their territories of origin, without guarantees of real reintegration or respect for the will of those involved.
Protection centers: temporary confinement, without structural solutions
According to the MTSS official, social protection centers are the institution for comprehensive care for people who “for various economic and social causes, are without fixed domicile, in a state of abandonment or lack relatives in a position to provide help, with a voluntary coexistence in the short term of up to 90 days”.
To date there are nine institutions of this type in Pinar del Río, Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Holguín, Granma and Santiago de Cuba, and the creation in the provinces they do not yet be evaluated.
Delgado warned that “it is not about having a person indefinitely in these centers, but about seeking facilities that allow them to reintegrate into the environment to which they belong.” In the case of older adults, he said, “they can be located in elderly homes, if necessary, for not having the help and support of the family.”
For people under 60, he mentioned the promotion of actions for labor and social insertion, contributing to the rehabilitation of possible drug addictions or alcohol, and comprehensive care and evaluation by health personnel.
In addition, the governors are responsible “for the allocation of temporary facilities, a transit home, the delivery of housing and the approval of subsidies for the repair and construction of housing, of these wandering people”, according to the regulations.
Although the official discourse speaks of reintegration, medical care and addiction treatment, no figures are provided on how many people have been really benefited, reinserted or if these facilities offer minimal living conditions.
Protocol to identify, classify and report
The Cuban State also formalized the identification protocol of people with wandering behavior “or prone for the degree of family neglect they present” in the communities, groups and families of risk, in charge of social workers, the doctors and nurses of the family’s offices.
If minors are detected in this situation, “it must be communicated urgently to the corresponding instance of the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Public Health, to immediately guarantee their reception in one of the social assistance centers dedicated to these purposes; provided there is no family member or affectively close person who can take charge; and accounts for the Prosecutor’s Office, while relevant investigations are carried out or another measure of protection is adopted of parental responsibility, ”said Delgado.
In practice, it is a policy of surveillance and social control disguised as assistance. There are no independent supervision mechanisms, nor is the voluntary participation of those affected guarantee. Nor are rights mentioned, only duties and discipline.
Hide the poor without eradicating poverty
The measure does not clearly address how to reverse begging, but how to manage its visibility. As a user commented on the official portal Cubadebate: “One thing is to eradicate begging and another is to eradicate beggars.”
Nor does it attack the structural causes of the phenomenon focused on the collapse of the economic model, family disintegration, demographic aging and mass emigration. The State does not recognize its responsibility in that crisis and opts for reactive measures to hide its symptoms.
The institutionalization of control over the poorest, under the label of “wandering behavior”, is nothing more than another authoritarian patch to make up a social fracture that can no longer be hidden.
The Cuban regime attributes the increase of people in street situations to family neglect and the hardening of the United States embargo.
A recent report from the official newspaper Girón has exposed one of the most painful realities of the current Cuba: the extreme precariousness in which thousands of retirees live That, after decades of work, they are forced to subsist in the streets.
The Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel must recognize the existence of worrying social manifestations such as Child laborbegging, labor informality and siege to tourists, something that the official press made visible as A reality often silenced In Cuba.
Since mid -2024, the government began to strengthen its Institutional narrative about the growing presence of homeless people in the streets of the country.
Last June, a State policy update to serve the wandering people, with emphasis on their forced relocation in social protection centers. Before, the authorities assured that tripled the number of beggars On the island.
At the social level there is a concern about growing inequality and impoverishment that the country lives, a phenomenon exposed by the British newspaper The Times What months ago described the reality of Cuba Like “a country in ruins, where people go hungry.”
Already in 2023 Cuba appeared as The poorest country in Latin Americaaccording to the firm Dataworld, a renowned international electoral observatory that evaluates parameters such as per capita income, access to health services, social security, food and housing spaces.
The country has 72 % poverty index, a figure that places it at the head of the Latin American region.
Frequently asked questions about the situation of “roasts” in Cuba
What is the 10056/2025 agreement and how does it affect the “Rooms” in Cuba?
The 10056/2025 Agreement of the Council of Ministers of Cuba is a legal norm that regulates the attention to people with “wandering behavior.” This agreement seeks to control the visibility of begging without attacking its structural causes, such as extreme poverty and the collapse of the Cuban economic model. The measure focuses on the containment and return of these people to their territories of origin, without guaranteeing a real reintegration or respecting the will of those involved.
What role do social protection centers play in the attention to the “roosambulators”?
Social protection centers in Cuba are institutions aimed at the integral care of people without fixed or abandonment. They allow voluntary coexistence in the short term of up to 90 days, but do not offer long -term structural solutions. Although there is talk of reintegration and medical care, there are no clear figures on how many people have been truly benefited by these measures.
How is the problem of begging in Cuba managed?
The Cuban regime approach to begging is based on the management of its visibility rather than the eradication of its causes. Official policies tend to blame family neglect and external factors, such as the United States embargo, without addressing the structural roots of the problem. This is reflected in reactive measures and a governmental discourse that minimizes the responsibility of the State in the social crisis.
What criticism faces the Cuban government approach towards the “roosamors”?
The Cuban government approach towards “roosenchants” has been criticized for its lack of attention to the structural causes of poverty and using euphemisms that dilute the seriousness of the problem. The regime opts for social control measures and containment, instead of offering effective solutions. These policies have been seen as an attempt to hide poverty without eradicating it, which reflects a failure in addressing the underlying economic and social crisis.
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