Cuba fires minister who said beggars in the country were all fakes
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The Cuban trade minister's remarks on beggars being fake were widely circulated on social media and became a lightning rod for frustration with years of economic crisis.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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HAVANA – The Cuban government fired its labour minister after she was publicly rebuked by President Miguel Diaz-Canel for saying the country’s beggars were all phonies in disguise.
A brief announcement on July 15 said that Labour and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito had demonstrated a lack of “objectivity and sensitivity on topics that are currently central to political and governmental policy”.
The minister’s July 14 remarks on live TV were widely circulated on social media and became a lightning rod for frustration with years of economic crisis.
“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,” Ms Feito said.
“They have found an easy way of life, to make money and not to work as is appropriate.”
Mr Diaz-Canel addressed the comments in his own appearance before the committee on July 15, saying they showed a lack of empathy and understanding of the roots of poverty.
“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 said. “The vulnerable are not our enemies.” REUTERS
