A video posted on Facebook shows the state of neglect and deterioration of the "Lidia Doce" Nursing Home in Bayamo, the capital of the Granma province, where the building appears to be vacated and is being progressively dismantled.
"It is now a forgotten, abandoned, dilapidated place, and every day it looks worse than the day before. They are dismantling it little by little; I don't know what will become of it, but let's hope it has a better future," describes the author of the clip, identified as "Robertico y su gozadera."
The 30-second video summarizes in images what the figures confirm: the collapse of the Cuban social assistance system in the face of its most vulnerable population.
Cuba is the most aging country in Latin America, with 25.7% of its population over 60 years old by the end of 2024, equivalent to more than two million people.
However, the State only has 156 nursing homes and 12,697 beds available across the entire national territory, and 51 municipalities are completely lacking in services for the elderly.
The situation is so critical that the Ministry of Labor and Social Security itself admitted in March 2026 that "there are no resources to assist vulnerable individuals."
A survey by ASIC of 506 retirees in five provinces revealed that 98.8% feel institutional abandonment, while 99% state that their pension does not cover basic needs for food, housing, and medication.
The poverty and abandonment characterize old age in Cuba, where the minimum pension was raised to 4,000 Cuban pesos in August 2025, equivalent to less than 10 dollars at the unofficial exchange rate.
Massive emigration exacerbates the situation: over 1.4 million Cubans have left the island since 2020, leaving 17.4% of older adults without close relatives who can provide them support.
Approximately 15% of older adults live alone, and around 89% of those over 70 face high risks of isolation, according to data from the Center for Social Cohesion Studies.
The foreign media has also highlighted the abandonment of the elderly in Cuba, in a context where the Cuban provinces are accumulating dependent elderly individuals without institutional or family support networks.
The home is named after Lidia Esther Doce Sánchez, a revolutionary heroine born in Holguín in 1916 and killed in Havana on September 17, 1958, after being captured by Batista's forces.
She acted as a key messenger between the Sierra Maestra and the urban clandestine leadership, transporting messages, medicines, and supplies for Che Guevara's column.
That an institution bearing his name is now in ruins and undergoing dismantling encapsulates, for many Cubans, the current state of the social promises of the regime.
The Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit documented that 96.4% of retirees believe that nursing homes do not provide adequate conditions in terms of infrastructure, staff, or care, a figure that the deterioration of the Lidia Doce Home turns into a concrete reality.
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