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While Bandec shares institutional collages on its social media celebrating the "priority" attention given to retirees and pensioners, Cubans themselves respond in the comments with a question that says it all: "In what part of the country is that, please?"
The branches of Bandec in Matanzas and Granma disseminated this week triumphalist messages regarding the pension payment period of June 2026, which began on June 16 and extends until July 1. "For us, it is and will always be a priority to provide this service with the quality and warmth that our clients deserve," proclaimed Bandec Matanzas. Bandec Granma, for its part, described the pension payment at branch 7491 in Bayamo as "more than just a banking operation."
The reality described by the citizens in those same publications is radically different.
"Which province is that because Camagüey hasn't paid retirees," wrote one user. Another reported waiting four days in line at the military hospital’s ATM, with only eight or ten people being served per day. In Limonar, a municipality in Matanzas, someone wrote in uppercase: "Nothing was given today in Limonar." In the Garzón bank, according to another comment, "the retirees' money hasn’t been delivered." In Alamar, zone 6 of Havana, the server broke down and the staff was reassigned. In Bayamo —the same city that Bandec Granma was celebrating— "it wasn't enough and there were places where people went for nothing to collect."
A retiree from Santa Clara summed up the widespread sentiment: "Cuba is divided, and things are only a certain way in specific areas. This is said by a retiree speaking from her own experience."
Another comment described a scene that has become common on the Island: "Since the night before, there are those pitiful beings lying in the doorways of the shops waiting to collect."
In parallel to the official discourse, Bandec Matanzas implemented an initiative to manage pension payments for retirees through local economic actors in the municipalities of Matanzas, Jovellanos, and Colón, aimed at bringing payments closer to the communities and reducing queues at branches. Yanetsy Chávez Camaraza, provincial director of Bandec in Matanzas, explained that beneficiaries can access their pensions near their homes through an extra cash option or a special banking procedure.
However, Miriam Cordero Alcántara, a 78-year-old retiree, appreciated the initiative but warned that she is concerned that private businesses may stop accepting transfers to accumulate cash intended for retirees, which would adversely affect other customers.
The background of this crisis is structural. The provincial government of Granma admitted on June 16 that it does not have the more than 400 million pesos needed to pay its 111,000 retirees, in one of the most candid admissions by a Cuban authority regarding its financial incapacity. The Provincial Commission for Social Security in Granma acknowledged that "it has not been possible to reach the necessary cash" in the majority of the municipalities.
Cuba has over 1.7 million retirees who rely on a banking system that has collapsed due to chronic cash shortages and power outages. The cash crisis has forced the regime to depend on small and medium-sized enterprises to sustain pension payments, with partial and uneven results depending on the province. The minimum pension, set at 4,000 Cuban pesos since September 2025, is equivalent to less than 10 dollars in the informal market.
While Bandec proclaims that "your well-being is our greatest motivation," retirees in Lawton, Camagüey, Santa Clara, and dozens of other places continue to ask when — and where — that well-being will arrive.
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