An elderly blind man living entirely alone in San Rafael, a rural area in the municipality of Holguín, survives in extreme misery: he sleeps on a board with cardboard as a mattress, uses a bucket as a toilet, and cooks on makeshift stoves with exposed, bare wires.
Her story was documented by social activist Noly Blak in a video published on Facebook that has garnered over 32,000 views.
The man's name is Juan Ridel Domínguez Martínez, and he carries out all his household tasks by touch, as he cannot see anything at all. When Noly Blak arrived at his house, he had only a little rice and a flour broth that he had been unable to cook due to a power outage. "I started to make a little rice this morning, and the power went out, just a little flour that I have there, and that's it," he recounted.
The house gets completely soaked when it rains. The electrical wires are bare and exposed, although the elderly man claims he hasn’t been electrocuted because he knows where not to touch. He can’t even remember his age with certainty: “I don’t even remember anymore, my son,” he replied when asked.
The man receives a pension of around 3,000 pesos a month as a person with a disability. However, to travel to the town to collect it, he must pay 2,000 pesos for a tricycle, the only transportation available in the area. He is left with just 1,000 pesos to feed himself and cover all his needs for the month. "My people, they are left with just a thousand pesos," Noly Blak noted in the video.
One time, when Ridel reached the bank window after waiting in line, the money had run out and he had to wait at another counter. "Oh my God, how am I going to pay the 2,000 pesos and what will I use to buy something to eat?" he recalled with distress.
The gentleman has no children and has lost his entire family: first his father, then his mother—who passed away from cancer—and finally his brother, of whom he said, “He was my life.”
For those who wish to help Juan Ridel, Noly Blak published the account number CUP 9238 1299 7534 1985 and her WhatsApp contact (+5353082732) to facilitate donations. "It's a shame that our grandparents have become zombies of their own money," concluded the activist.
Noly Blak, whose real name is Norge Ernesto Díaz Blak, has been documenting and channeling charitable aid for people living in extreme poverty in Holguín for years. In April, one of his campaigns raised over 3.6 million pesos for a mother with three children, and in May, another initiative of his gathered over 1.1 million pesos for two siblings in extreme poverty.
The case of Juan Ridel reflects a humanitarian crisis that especially impacts Cuban seniors. The loss of purchasing power of pensions, the shortage of food and medicine, and the mass emigration of family members have depleted the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of elderly people on the Island.
According to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, 79% of individuals over 70 do not manage to have three meals a day, in a context marked by the deterioration of basic services, prolonged blackouts, and the collapse of essential infrastructure.
Although the government raised the minimum pension to 4,000 pesos in September, the increase has not compensated for inflation or the sustained rise in prices in the informal market. Thousands of elderly individuals are facing a harsh reality with insufficient pensions and a damaged social security system that leaves entire families without an institutional safety net.
The regime itself acknowledged in March that the budget "is not extensive" and does not allow for the care of all vulnerable individuals.
In light of the collapse, he announced in June that he would force private and state companies to fund the social assistance system, implicitly acknowledging that the State can no longer sustain it.
Power outages further worsen the situation. In Holguín, the electric company implemented in June a scheme of only three hours of electricity for every 39 or 40 hours of outage, with circuits that have experienced over 68 consecutive hours without service.
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