Cuba struggles to aid elderly as government services flounder amid energy crisis

Sagrado Armando Garcia, an 85-year-old retired historian and sociologist living in Havana, no longer dedicates as much time as he would like to researching the past; his health doesn't allow it.

When he fell ill recently, his son couldn't get him to the nearest hospital because he didn't have fuel for the family car.

Garcia, a former advisor to the country's Ministry of Social Security, says that Cuba's elderly have never had it so bad.

Garcia receives some ongoing benefits—including two meals a day—through a Cuban government system known by its acronym SAF, which provides rations to the poor and the elderly. 

According to the Ministry of Interior Commerce website, the daily allotment covers the need for "1,200 kilocalories, in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the two daily meals (lunch and dinner)."

Garcia says it still comes up short. Pensions have shrunk to the equivalent of $7 a month on the black-market exchange, as the peso has lost about a third of its value against the dollar since the start of the blockade.

The Cuban government has appealed to the United Nations World Food Programme for aid so it can continue providing two meals a day to the vulnerable and the elderly.

Cuba is the fastest-aging nation in Latin America and the Caribbean. More than a quarter of its population is over 60, according to the Cuban government statistics agency, driven by a plummeting birthrate and a mass exodus of young people. The population has dwindled to less than 10 million since 2021, a 10% decline. 

Now that the ballooning population of seniors faces a perfect storm of fast-collapsing public services, hours-long power daily outages, and growing food and medicine shortages amid a Trump administration move to cut off the island's fuel supply and force the Cuban government to negotiate on U.S. terms.

But conditions have deteriorated rapidly this year, several senior citizens told Reuters, exacerbating the gap between those seniors with alternative sources of income, like remittances, and those without.

Regina Zaida Jorge, a 74-year-old pensioner, lives alone, and relies on church groups for food. She said she had given "everything" as a low-paid state worker to a system she said was now incapable of providing her so much as a bar of soap or a diet adequate for her chronic illnesses.

Under Fidel Castro's socialist model, Cuba moved to guarantee basic public services—subsidized food, medical care, education, public transportation, and a retirement pension—based on the understanding that workers would contribute their labor and time.

As this social contract crumbles, many of Cuba's elderly feel they have been left behind.

Mercedes Guals Rios, a 71-year-old retiree and Havana resident, practices yoga several times a week in search of inner peace, she says, a refuge from a country in crisis.

The yoga classes she attends are taught by a volunteer instructor, who offers the sessions free of charge. 

Without family abroad or remittances to guarantee her economic stability, she finds it impossible to afford any private care services during the month. Even her yoga classes would be out of reach.

On an island where the average monthly income hovers around $15, remittances sent from relatives abroad have historically marked the difference between “rich” and “poor.” That gap has been growing as state services fade.

Sonia Belmonte Puebla, 73, says she is fully enjoying her old age, living independently in her own home with little need for state assistance.

She spends her days making cushions and supplements her income with help from her family, especially a daughter who lives in the United States.

Production: Alien Fernandez, Anett Rios, Anna Portella/Reuters