HAVANA, June 10 – An 85-year-old former government worker named Sagrado Armando Garcia recently collapsed at home, but his son couldn’t transport him to medical care because there was no fuel available for their vehicle. Garcia has experienced episodes of severe hunger-induced dizziness that left him worried he might collapse again.
Garcia dedicated years of service to Cuba’s Ministry of Social Security, trusting in a system that pledged to protect citizens during their retirement years. That confidence has now disappeared.
“They are leaving us to our fate,” he said.
For years, Cuba has battled against severe U.S. economic sanctions while attempting to fulfill the promises made by the communist government to provide essential services for workers: subsidized food, healthcare, education, public transportation, and pensions.
The island’s elderly residents – already familiar with deteriorating public services, electrical blackouts and persistent shortages of food and medicine – now confront even more difficult circumstances following the administration’s decision in late January to eliminate the country’s fuel supply.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson directed Reuters to recent testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attributes Cuba’s problems to internal corruption and mismanagement rather than U.S. sanctions.
“Cuba was having blackouts well before January 3rd of this year, for two reasons: they were no longer getting free oil from Venezuela, and they did not invest a single dollar back into their plants,” the spokesperson said, citing Rubio. “Cuba is a mess.”
AGING POPULATION AT HIGH RISK
Monthly pensions have decreased to approximately $7 on the black-market exchange, as the peso has lost roughly one-third of its value compared to the dollar since the blockade began.
The Cuban government has requested assistance from the United Nations World Food Programme to help maintain two daily meals for vulnerable and elderly populations.
Cuba represents the most rapidly aging country in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over 25% of residents are above age 60, based on Cuban government statistics, due to declining birth rates and massive emigration of younger citizens. The total population has dropped below 10 million since 2021, representing a 10% decrease.
Etienne Labande, the WFP representative in Havana, explained that the combination of rising prices and diminishing pensions and rations has created dangerous circumstances for many seniors, who cannot afford adequate food or medical treatment.
“This is a very high-risk population right now, a situation that worsened starting in January,” he told Reuters. “Inflation has skyrocketed, there’s no public transportation, and getting around costs a lot of money.”
The Ministry of Internal Commerce, which oversees public food kitchens, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CRUMBLING SERVICES
Cuba’s public healthcare system, previously considered a major accomplishment of communist governance, has deteriorated under years of sanctions.
The number of doctors in Cuba dropped by 30% between 2019 and 2024, according to Cuban government figures – the most recent year of publicly available data – while 70% of essential medicines were either scarce or completely unavailable.
The waiting list for surgeries is expected to reach 160,000 patients by year’s end, a 60% increase, according to the Cuban health ministry. Most medications, including blood pressure treatments, are in short supply, doctors told Reuters.
HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS
On an island where typical monthly earnings hover around $15, even modest amounts of money sent by relatives abroad make a difference.
For elderly Cubans who don’t receive remittances from abroad, conditions are especially tight.
“In this crisis that Cuba has been experiencing since January, the elderly are most affected,” Bryan Arbuelles, a member of the clergy at the San Juan de Letran church in Havana, said. “They are people who worked for decades but whose pension is now not enough to live on.”
He added: “The outlook is terrible.”
Regina Zaida Jorge, a 74-year-old retired doctor who lives alone in the former servants’ quarters of a once-regal old house, receives no money from outside Cuba.
Her small apartment lacks running water, forcing her to carry it daily from a rooftop cistern. She survives on government rations and food donations from the Catholic Church.
“The policies here were designed to guarantee the basics,” she said. “But deep down they are cosmetic measures, to keep you alive. You have to forget about aspiring to have a television, a telephone; the pension isn’t enough for anything.”
She explained that she had given “everything” as a low-paid state worker to a system unable to provide her with necessities as fundamental as a bar of soap.
Now that she is a pensioner struggling to survive, she said, “I feel like I sacrificed myself in vain.”
Last year, U.S. sanctions prompted top money transfer company Western Union to halt services to Cuba.
Some still find a way to get an external cash injection.
Sonia Belmonte Puebla, 73, receives small amounts of money in dollars from a daughter in Florida.
Unlike many of her generation, she said she is enjoying her old age, living independently at home with her husband with little need for state assistance.
“I can treat myself now and then and eat well,” Belmonte said.
