Recently, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights shared a video depicting a common scene across Cuba: elderly individuals enduring long waits at banks to receive their meager pensions.
The footage, captured in Cárdenas, Matanzas, reveals scores of people crowded outside a bank branch, many visibly exhausted and lacking places to sit.
"These are the people, retirees, trying to withdraw their little bit of money so they can eat, standing in line at the bank," narrates the person recording the video.
"Fighting at the front like dogs, hoping to get their thousand or two thousand pesos to sustain themselves. Look at that. It's pitiful. They're all elderly," they add with indignation.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights has highlighted that in a country where 89% of the population lives in extreme poverty, it is the older adults who suffer the most from the lack of cash, economic deterioration, and state neglect.
According to the organization, the dire circumstances faced by the elderly illustrate the depth of Cuba's crisis.
Despite a recent increase in minimum pensions, effective since September, their value has been wiped out by the continual depreciation of the Cuban peso on the informal currency market, where the dollar and euro have reached new historic highs.
The minimum pension set by Resolution 14/2025—4,000 Cuban pesos (CUP)—currently equates to about $9.0, 8.16 euros, or 14.8 MLC, based on informal rates as of November 28.
With the price of a carton of eggs surpassing 3,000 pesos on the informal market and essentials like oil, rice, sugar, powdered milk, and beans reaching astronomical prices, these pensions barely last for a few days.
The scene captured in the Cárdenas video is a daily occurrence throughout the country. Elderly Cubans, many with mobility issues or chronic illnesses, endure hours of waiting under the sun or rain without assurance that the bank will have cash available.
The scarcity of cash at bank branches forces retirees to return day after day, prolonging their ordeal.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights emphasized that the Cuban government is obligated to ensure dignified incomes and effective social protection for the elderly.
However, the reality is quite the opposite, with a state that abandons those who dedicated their working lives to the country, now surviving on pensions insufficient for anything.
The economic crisis plaguing Cuba has hit the most vulnerable sectors hardest, with retirees paying the steepest price.
While the government touts supposed social achievements, thousands of elderly individuals stand in endless lines to collect pensions that condemn them to poverty.
Challenges Faced by Elderly Cubans in Collecting Pensions
Why do elderly Cubans face long queues at banks?
Elderly Cubans endure long queues at banks due to the widespread cash shortage and inefficiencies in the banking system, exacerbated by the country's economic crisis.
What is the impact of the economic crisis on Cuban retirees?
The economic crisis in Cuba has severely affected retirees, leaving them with insufficient pensions that cannot cover basic living expenses due to rampant inflation and currency devaluation.