The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights recently released a video showing a daily scene in Cuba, where elderly individuals stand in long lines at banks to collect their meager pensions.
The images were captured in Cárdenas, Matanzas, and show dozens of people crowded in front of the bank branch, many of them visibly tired and with no places to sit.
"These are the people, retirees, trying to withdraw their money to afford food, in line at the bank," says the person recording the video.
"Tied up there like dogs, to see if they can get their thousand or two thousand pesos that they’re given, just to sustain their lives. Look at that. It's pitiful. They are all elderly people," he adds with indignation.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reported that in a country where 89% of the population lives in extreme poverty, it is the elderly who face the worst consequences of a lack of liquidity, economic decline, and state neglect.
The organization stated that the precarious living conditions of the elderly demonstrate the depth of the crisis in Cuba.
The recent increase in minimum pensions in Cuba, in effect since September, has once again been nullified by the ongoing decline in the value of the Cuban peso in the informal currency market, where the dollar and the euro have reached new historical highs.
The minimum amount established by the Resolution 14/2025 —4,000 Cuban pesos (CUP)— is equivalent today to approximately 9.0 dollars, 8.16 euros, or 14.8 MLC, according to the informal rates in effect this 28th of November.
With the price of a dozen eggs exceeding 3,000 pesos in the informal market, and essential products such as oil, rice, sugar, powdered milk, and beans reaching astronomical figures, these pensions barely provide for survival for a few days.
The scene depicted in Cárdenas' video occurs daily throughout the country. Elderly Cubans, many of whom have mobility issues or chronic illnesses, must endure hours of waiting under the sun or rain without any guarantee that the bank will have cash available.
The lack of liquidity in bank branches forces retirees to return day after day, prolonging their ordeal.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights emphasized that the Cuban government has the obligation to guarantee dignified incomes and effective social protection for the elderly.
However, reality shows the opposite, a State that abandons those who dedicated their working life to the country and who now survive on pensions that are insufficient for anything.
The economic crisis in Cuba has hit the most vulnerable sectors especially hard, and retirees are the ones paying the highest price.
While the government celebrates supposed social achievements, thousands of elderly individuals stand in endless lines to collect pensions that condemn them to poverty.
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