Dozens of elderly people gathered this week in front of the Banco Popular de Ahorro in Plaza de Dolores, in Santiago de Cuba, forming long lines in an attempt to collect their monthly pension, in a scene that was captured in a video shared by the Facebook page "Nuestro Santiago de Cuba / Ayer y Hoy" this Saturday.
The recording, which garnered over 7,300 views, shows numerous retirees waiting under the shade of a tree in the plaza, in what has become a monthly scene of the social security crisis on the island.
According to the dossier data, the BPA branch at that location can only accommodate about 50 retirees per day with priority service, compared to a demand that far exceeds that capacity.
Many of those affected, some as old as 80, begin to line up as early as six in the evening the day before and spend the night on the sidewalks to secure their spot, with wait times ranging from four to eight hours.
What awaits them at the end of that line is a minimum pension of 4,000 Cuban pesos, equivalent to between seven and eight dollars at the current unofficial exchange rate, a sum that is nowhere near enough to cover the basic basket, estimated to be between 12,000 and 30,000 pesos per person.
A survey by ASIC from March 2026 revealed that 99% of Cuban retirees claim that their pension does not cover food, housing, or medication.
The cash shortage in the banking system exacerbates the problem: more than 50% of the country's ATMs are out of service or empty, and power outages further reduce banking hours.
The collapse is not exclusive to Santiago. This Saturday, retired journalist from the state newspaper Granma, Iraida Calzadilla, reported on Facebook that she spent eight hours sitting on the curb of the Ministry of Transport's bank in Havana to withdraw up to 5,000 pesos—less than nine dollars—describing the system as "inhumane."
The government of the province of Granma acknowledged in June that it does not have the 400 million pesos necessary to pay its 111,000 pensioners, and has resorted to staggered payments based on the daily availability of each branch.
Cuba has 1,774,310 retirees according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information, and the purchasing power of that group fell by almost 30% between September 2025 and June 2026 due to inflation and the depreciation of the peso.
As an emergency response, the Central Bank announced this Saturday the nationwide extension of the "Extra Cash" scheme, which obliges local businesses and private small and medium-sized enterprises to pay pensions directly to retirees in their area, using the cash from their daily sales.
The plan had been functioning as a pilot since April in four municipalities of Havana and since May in Holguín, benefiting about 5,000 retirees.
Critics see the measure as an admission of the state's failure to ensure social security, by shifting a responsibility that belongs to the government to private actors.
The state newspaper Venceremos acknowledged on July 3 that the situation of retirees is a "social problem," rather than just a banking difficulty, while Cuban seniors continue to wonder if it is possible to eat for a month on 4,000 pesos.
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