A video published on Facebook by Juan Luis Vasallo Palomo, known as "El Quijote Bayamés," depicts the situation of a retired Cuban man who, at the time of filming, had not yet received his pension and was out of money for food.
Vasallo Palomo visited him in his humble home and handed him some money. "What’s the use of working for the state if the salary isn’t enough for anything, and when you retire, if no one gives you a helping hand, you're done for."
In the clip, the elderly man expresses gratitude for the monetary assistance he received and explains that he will use it to buy food: "Thank you very much, my son, since they haven't paid me where I go to collect yet. And I didn't even have enough to buy today's rice."
The comments on the video reflect equal parts indignation and resignation. "Today, retirees are the ones suffering the most in Cuba," wrote one internet user. Another noted: "This is how most retirees live, without receiving help from abroad."
A third voice was emphatic: "It is a disgrace as a society that those who laid the foundations of this nation, those who fought, those who dedicated themselves, are abandoned, unable to even collect their pensions, and that these pensions are a mockery, barely enough for a liter of oil."
The heartbreaking scene condenses in less than a minute the situation faced by more than 1.7 million retirees in Cuba: pensions that barely cover the essentials and chronic delays in payments.
The minimum pension in Cuba is 4,000 pesos per month since September 2025, which is equivalent to only between seven and ten dollars at the informal exchange rate, and it covers just a fraction of the basic food basket, estimated to be between 12,000 and 30,000 pesos per person.
The economist Javier Pérez Capdevila estimated that a person needs around 96,060 pesos per month to cover basic needs, of which 70,070 pesos would be solely for food.
According to a survey by the Independent Trade Association of Cuba, 99% of the retired individuals surveyed claim that their pension does not cover food, housing, and medicine, and 90.7% of retirees work informally to survive. Furthermore, 79% of those over 70 are unable to have three meals a day.
The collapse of the banking system exacerbates the crisis. The ordeal of elderly Cubans trying to collect their pensions repeats itself every month in endless lines, offices without power, and indifferent employees who send them away.
The Granma government admitted in June that it was short more than 400 million pesos to pay its 111,000 retirees. In August, retirees in Holguín were once again unable to receive their payments because the funds did not reach banks or postal offices.
Cuba is the most aged country in Latin America: 26.7% of its population was 60 years old or older by the end of 2025, with more than 2.5 million people in that age group.
Filed under: