Economist Elías Amor responded, visibly moved, during an analysis program with journalist Tania Costa, as he listened live to the testimony of Maribel Fajardo, a Cuban from Alamar in East Havana, who described the desperate situation of retirees in her area, unable to collect their pension after spending entire days waiting in line in front of a bank in Zone 1, which is not providing service due to a lack of electricity.
Fajardo intervened in the program's chat with a message that summarized a reality repeating across Cuba: “Hello, please don’t take so long, as all the retirees are going to die waiting in line to correct lists that have been unresolved for five days or more. I’m from Alamar. There’s never any electricity. The workers spend eight hours sitting at the door (of the bank) unable to do anything, and at 3:30 pm they pick up and leave. They fulfill their schedules while retirees collapse from faintness, hungry, holding onto hope of receiving their pension, and have to go home worse off than when they arrived.”
Amor responded to the testimony with a mix of pain and critical harshness. "The saddest part is that, gentlemen, they tell us these things, and you cannot imagine how much it hurts us to see our compatriots going through this while we are far from Cuba. It particularly breaks my heart. I truly mean it," the economist stated.
The analyst then became more direct in his judgment by pointing to those responsible. "It is a situation that is absolutely unknown, and it is incomprehensible how it is possible that this gang of thugs leading the Cuban communist regime won't step aside and allow others to change the country and improve the economic situation. It is very painful, and I say this, well, with complete sincerity."
Fajardo's testimony came amid the debate over a controversial measure from the Central Bank of Cuba that proposes local small and medium enterprises (Mipymes) and self-employed workers to advance pension payments in cash to retirees in their area, later receiving a compensatory transfer from the state, which some stakeholders estimate will involve a 5% commission. Amor described the initiative as an "absurdity" and "madness," calling for its immediate withdrawal.
The ordeal of retired Cubans in front of the banks is not an isolated case. Scenes of elderly individuals under the sun for hours have been repeatedly documented throughout 2025 and 2026. In July, RTVE reported that some retirees receive pensions of just 3,000 Cuban pesos, equivalent to about four euros, after waiting days to cash them.
The collapse has structural roots. Cuba has more than 1.7 million retirees and 27.6% of its population is over 65 years old, one of the highest percentages in the world. The minimum pension is 4,000 pesos per month, which is less than 10 dollars at the informal exchange rate. In June, the provincial government of Granma publicly admitted that it did not have the more than 400 million pesos necessary to pay its 111,000 retirees, highlighting the state's insolvency to meet its own obligations.
In response, the National Assembly approved on June 18 a package of 176 economic measures that includes the pension payment scheme through local businesses, which has been piloted since April in four municipalities of Havana and extended to Holguín in May, where about 20 Mipymes began paying nearly 5,000 retirees. In July, the Central Bank announced the national expansion of the scheme.
Love summarized his assessment of the official package like this: «And just look at the fact that they have introduced 176 measures, each more absurd than the last, and we've discussed them here on this program».
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