An elderly woman and her son, who has mental health issues, are living in desperate conditions in San Germán, Holguín, without food, medicine, or water, and relying on a wood stove that doesn’t always light as their only means of cooking.
The case of Maribel was documented in a video published on March 29 by Ángel Cardona on Facebook, where the woman describes her situation starkly: "I am feeling very bad, my mind is all over the place. Today we haven't made any food. I go up to three days without eating."
Maribel is hypertensive and has not been taking medication - she needs captopril - since last October, because it is not available in pharmacies and she cannot afford it in the informal market.
His son, who suffers from a mental illness, is running out of amitriptyline— a tricyclic antidepressant widely used in Cuba— and folic acid, the medications necessary for his psychiatric treatment.
"I have no container to hold water, and I have no stove to cook," recounted the elderly woman, who relies on neighbors for food and water cubes to survive.
Her only cooking method is a wood stove, which for someone of her age and physical condition is unmanageable: "I have to be there as I am, in pain, on all fours, helping my son because he does everything the wrong way with his mind."
Ángel Cardona concluded his statement with a request that the State should address but does not: "We urge the entire Christian community, and non-Christian community, both within and outside of Cuba, to help, to contribute something to eat for Maribel. Any assistance is welcome."
The case is not an exception but rather the most visible expression of the collapse of the Family Care System (SAF), the state network designed to assist elderly individuals living alone, people with disabilities, and chronically ill individuals without family support.
The Cuban government has acknowledged that it lacks the resources to assist individuals in extreme vulnerability.
Officials from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security acknowledged in March that the State does not have enough budget to support all vulnerable individuals, while the SAF receives between seven and eight new applications daily and increased its assistance from 59,000 people in 2023 to approximately 67,000 by mid-2025.
The budget allocated for social assistance in 2026 was only 5,981 million Cuban pesos, equivalent to about 14,600 dollars, a negligible amount given the severity of the crisis.
People with mental illnesses and their caregivers represent one of the most overlooked groups within this deterioration.
The shortage of psychiatric medications has been chronic since 2020 -amitriptyline, risperidone, quetiapine- and worsened in 2024 and 2025, with hospitals closing wards due to a lack of medications and staff, and a community mental health system that was never strong and is now practically dismantled.
San Germán belongs to the eastern provinces, historically the most affected by structural poverty in Cuba, where multiple cases of families in extreme conditions have been documented, elderly individuals surviving in ruins, and malnourished children without institutional support.
The deaths due to malnutrition in Cuba increased by 74% between 2022 and 2023, and 97% of Cubans have lost the ability to access basic food since 2021, according to surveys from the Food Monitor Program.
The energy crisis worsens the situation: with blackouts reaching a deficit of 2,025 megawatts during peak hours in March, the wood stove has become the only means of cooking for millions of Cubans, including the sick and elderly who cannot handle it safely.
More than 50% of Cuban households receive water every two to 15 days, which makes the lack of containers to store it—like in Maribel's case—a deprivation with direct consequences on health.
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