A doctor over 90 years old living in Placetas, Villa Clara, touched the hearts of thousands of Cubans this weekend after his testimony about the precarious conditions in which he lives was shared on Facebook, sparking a wave of solidarity that manifested in just a few hours.
«We have very little financial support. My pension doesn't cover anything, at all, because it's 3,000 pesos. I have a pension of 3,000», said the doctor in the video shared on Facebook by Rubén Carrillo. Dr. Garcel recounted in the first person the difficulties of his daily life: he lives alone, and his only brother —over 70 years old— resides in Santiago de Cuba and can barely assist him.
"Can you imagine that I'm living alone here in Placetas? I have a brother in Santiago de Cuba, but he helps me very little, very little, because he is also an old man in his 70s. He can help me a bit, but not much. Not much. That's the way it is, and it's a bad, terrible situation. We are facing very painful circumstances here," he said.
The elderly man also described the prolonged power outages he is experiencing: "We have had a blackout for three days. This is a serious problem. Very serious."
Their situation becomes even more critical when considering that the official minimum pension in Cuba was set at 4,000 pesos per month since September 2025, and in 2026, this amount corresponds to barely between seven and eight dollars at the informal exchange rate, while the basic food basket is estimated to be between 12,000 and 30,000 pesos per person per month.
After the video, Carrillo stated that an anonymous person approached the doctor —on the Central Highway, heading towards Cabaiguán— and brought him a pizza, a soda, and financial assistance of an unspecified amount. Dr. Garcel told him that he had arrived "at the best time, because he had nothing to eat."
«Thank you so much, thank you so much to all my friends and those who help me,» expressed the elderly man in another video.
Ruben Carrillo stated, "Doctor Garcel dedicated his life to caring for others. Today, he deserves to be cared for as well."
Cuba has more than 1.7 million retirees whose pensions have drastically lost purchasing power. A survey conducted by the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba among 506 retirees from five provinces revealed that 99% state that their pension does not cover food, housing, or medicine.
The institutional abandonment of elderly individuals has been documented in multiple municipalities across the country. In recent months, similar cases in Camagüey, Holguín, and Havana followed the same pattern: a report on social media served as the catalyst for the only assistance that arrives, which comes from the citizens themselves.
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