The Cuban government has dismissed Labor and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito from her post after she was publicly reprimanded by President Miguel Diaz-Canel for inappropriate and offensive comments about people begging on the country's streets, reports Reuters.
A brief statement issued on Tuesday evening said Feito had shown a "lack of objectivity and sensitivity on issues that are currently at the center of government policy".
The scandal erupted after she appeared on live television on Monday, where the minister said that "there are no real beggars in Cuba" and that people who appeared to be beggars were actually "in disguise" and used begging as an "easy way to earn money without working".
"If you look at them - their hands, their clothes - you will see that they are pretending", Feito said. "It is a lifestyle choice, not a real need."
Her comments caused a storm on social media and were sharply criticized by citizens tired of years of economic crisis, shortages of basic goods and increasing social vulnerability.
President Diaz-Canel reacted personally the next day during a meeting of a government commission, emphasizing that Feito's statements showed "a lack of empathy and understanding of the roots of poverty".
"These people who we call homeless or associated with begging are actually a concrete expression of the social inequalities and accumulated problems that we face. "The vulnerable are not our enemies," the president stressed.