Authorities in Santiago de Cuba acknowledged that a total of 101,359 people, which is more than 10% of the province's actual population, have been identified as vulnerable and will receive food packs distributed across 154 warehouses designated for that purpose.
The figure was confirmed by Edelva Marín Medina, Coordinator of Programs and Objectives in the Provincial Government of People's Power, who described the measure as "a policy that involves not subsidizing resources, but rather each individual in a personalized and differentiated manner," reported this Saturday the official newspaper Sierra Maestra.
The identification of beneficiaries is carried out by multidisciplinary groups operating in the popular councils, who update the lists each month.
The guaranteed food module until January includes five pounds of rice, one pound of peas, one pound of sugar, and one kilogram of black beans, the latter to be provided only once subject to availability, which will be noted in the Supply Notebook.
The 154 warehouses are distributed across the eight municipalities of the province: 29 in Palma Soriano, 26 in Santiago de Cuba, 25 in Contramaestre, 21 in San Luis, 16 in Songo-La Maya, 14 in Guamá, nine in Segundo Frente, and seven each in Tercer Frente and Mella, respectively.
According to the news outlet, in hard-to-reach areas, products are being positioned in advance to cover several months. Additionally, all units are required to announce the available items on information boards, indicating the dates of entry and expiration.
The announcement is part of the new model of targeted social protection approved by the National Assembly in June, within the package of 176 economic transformations that replaced universal subsidies with assistance directed towards those classified as vulnerable on a monthly basis by the local councils.
The Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced days ago that more than 883,000 individuals considered to be in the most vulnerable situations will receive five pounds of rice, one of sugar, and one of grains each month until January, as a result of a "meticulous effort at the community level, door to door."
The official figure of vulnerable individuals has grown at an accelerated pace. In July 2025, Marrero himself acknowledged 310,000 people in that situation; by July 2026, the number had risen to 876,522; and in just three more months, it had already surpassed 883,000.
In Holguín, authorities recognized that 90,148 people, roughly one in every 10 residents, are in a state of vulnerability, a proportion nearly identical to that of Santiago de Cuba.
After conducting 1,318 interviews between June 27 and July 29 in 79 municipalities, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) found that 94% of the respondents lived in extreme poverty.
The economist Pedro Monreal cautioned that extending coverage to all officially recognized vulnerable individuals would require a 4.5-fold increase in current social protection spending, amounting to approximately 24.3 billion pesos, a figure that the government is not capable of financing.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) projects a decline of 10.3% in Cuba's GDP in 2026, the worst in Latin America, along with an annual inflation rate of 25.19% in August.
As recently warned by historian Ivette García González, the vulnerable in Cuba are no longer a minority: "They are not segments. It is the majority of the people, the common citizen."
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