Struggles of a Retired Journalist: Eight Hours Waiting for a Pension in Cuba

Iraida Calzadilla, a retired journalist from the official newspaper Granma and a professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana, endured a grueling eight-hour wait at the Ministry of Transportation's bank to collect her pension on Friday. Her account highlights the daily ordeal faced by more than 1.7 million Cuban retirees.

In a Facebook post titled "Back on the Curb," Calzadilla detailed a day spent under the scorching sun alongside elderly individuals with obvious physical impairments, all striving to withdraw up to 5,000 pesos—less than nine dollars at the informal exchange rate—in what she describes as an inhumane banking system.

"Eight long, hot, exhausting, and frustrating hours in the pensioners' line at the bank of the Ministry of Transportation. Eight hours with nothing rewarding to remember, only the sadness of watching so many elderly people with visible physical deteriorations trying to reach the 'salvation' of up to 5,000 pesos," she wrote.

Calzadilla recounted having to sit on the curb because standing was unbearable, observing the dynamics of a queue plagued by cutting in line, shoving, and constant disputes from her low vantage point.

The Unyielding Reality of Cuban Banking

Calzadilla emphasized that the inability to use digital transfers forces retirees to endure this ordeal monthly: "The option to transfer money anywhere is increasingly impossible. One must live through all the anguish that precedes and persists during the dreadful queue to truly understand how vulnerable we are."

As a minimal solution, she suggested distributing numbered tickets to organize the lines, but a bank employee dismissed this as "a queue problem" beyond his capacity to address.

Calzadilla's account wasn't the only one that day. In a comment on her post, Ricardo López Hevia, a photojournalist at Granma and vice president of the Union of Cuban Journalists, described what he witnessed within just ten minutes at the Banco del Mónaco in the Diez de Octubre municipality.

"I saw shouting, crying from helplessness, people wielding canes and hurling accusations loudly, and chaos in every form. No one was there to control or steer the endless, chaotic line. The Face of Misery is anything but dignified."

Structural Failures and Public Skepticism

Both testimonies, coming from journalists within the official system, underscore the severity of a crisis acknowledged by the state newspaper Venceremos on July 3: the banking situation "has evolved from a banking difficulty into a social problem."

The collapse stems from structural issues. The mandatory banking policy enforced since 2021 deposited salaries and pensions onto cards without the infrastructure to support withdrawals.

The official press has admitted that only 3.77% of transactions in Cuba are digital, and under 10% of private businesses in provinces like Sancti Spíritus regularly accept transfers.

This is not the first time Calzadilla has documented such a struggle. In June 2025, she reported being "thrown on the bank's doorstep" in Zanja while trying to collect a pension that wasn't even fully disbursed.

This Friday, her conclusion was as bitter as before: "So many voices have decried these terror-filled days without real solutions. What's left for us? Take a muscle relaxant and a painkiller, have a shower, and lay down to rest our weary bones."

On the same day, the Central Bank of Cuba announced new measures to encourage digital payments, promising immediate funds to businesses that accept them starting August 1.

However, the public reaction was broadly skeptical: "the problem is there’s no cash in the banks," summarized sentiments on social media.