US Edition'Survive, Nothing More': Cuba's Elderly Live Hand to Mouth
- Cuba's senior citizens, including 72-year-old economist Lucy Perez, face severe hardships amid the island’s most severe economic downturn in decades, characterized by soaring inflation and widespread shortages.
- The crisis worsened as inflation increased nearly threefold from 2018 to 2023, while monthly pensions, which began at around 1,528 pesos, did not keep up with rising living expenses.
- In 2023, the cost of basic food for a Cuban family of three was equivalent to 12 to 14 times the typical minimum monthly wage, while approximately 68,000 elderly individuals depended on government-operated soup kitchens for a single subsidized meal each day.
- Lucy Perez lamented, “Things are bad, really bad,” adding, “there’s no food, there’s nothing,” as she receives a pension worth about $13 monthly after a 36-year career.
- The crisis has driven a migratory exodus since 2022 and sparked protests, reflecting deep economic mismanagement compounded by US sanctions and pandemic-related tourism losses.
44 Articles
44 Articles
Survive, nothing more: Cuba’s elderly live hand to mouth
HAVANA: With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba’s elderly struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America’s poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for some 2.4 million inhabitants — more than a quarter of
‘Survive, nothing more’: Cuba’s elderly live hand to mouth
With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba's elderly struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America's poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for some
L'Opinion
NotreTemps.comHavana - In the twilight of their lives, with pensions that allow only 15 eggs to be bought, the elderly are trying to overcome the serious economic crisis in Cuba, one of the oldest countries in Latin America.
In a country hit by a deep economic crisis and with one of the oldest populations in Latin America, older people in Cuba struggle to get ahead with pensions that barely reach a dozen and a half eggs. Every morning, under a stand on Galiano Street —one of the busiest arteries in downtown Havana—, Isidro Manuet, 73, sets up his improvised informal trading post to try to earn what is indispensable. “I live alone to eat, it doesn’t give for more,” M…
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