A video posted on Instagram by the user laurenlotti_ showed her grandfather's first retirement payment: 3,727 Cuban pesos, equivalent to less than eight dollars, after 40 years of work and eight months of waiting to receive that money.
After eight months of waiting, my grandfather received his pension. "3,727 pesos, less than 8 dollars," the young woman adds in the video, where she accompanies him to make a purchase with that amount to illustrate how little can be bought with that money.
The journey highlights the scarcity and high prices: basic products like rice and sugar are imported, while other foods are practically inaccessible. Just a few potatoes cost 1,100 pesos, a small bag of sugar 700, and another bag of rice 700, along with a sack of charcoal for 1,300 pesos. With only a few items, the money runs out quickly, revealing the inadequacy of the pension in light of the actual cost of living on the island.
The case of the grandfather of the young content creator is not an exception. Previous data indicates that the purchasing power of the minimum pension has lost nearly 30% in the last year, affected by inflation and the devaluation of the Cuban peso.
The situation worsens when considering that the basic food supply requires at least 30,000 pesos per month, a figure that is eight times what this elderly person received as their initial payment after four decades of work.
The testimony adds to a long chain of complaints. Recently, an elderly man stated: "I worked for 57 years in this country, and what do I have?", in a video that moved thousands of Cubans both on the island and abroad.
To the economic hardship is added the logistical nightmare of collecting pensions, with long lines, collapsed systems, and physical risks for the elderly. In Cárdenas, a retiree was assaulted and died in a bank queue, while a postal worker was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing pensions that were meant to be delivered to people's homes.
Despite the public outcry, the Finance Minister Vladimir Regueiro Ale defended the budget in February and vowed to ensure the payment of pensions, without providing concrete solutions to the loss of purchasing power experienced by millions of retirees in Cuba.
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