The organization documents the story of Maria, an 80 -year -old old woman who represents thousands who, like her, have been thrown into absolute poverty.
Miami, United States. – Thousands of retired Cubans survive today in extreme conditions, without access to a dignified life, depending on minimal pensions that do not cover even the essentials. Many have ended in the streets, searching in the trash or asking for alms, while the official discourse denies their existence and accuses them of being “disguised.”
“The order to sweep the beggars is given,” warns the Food Monitor Program in A publication this Thursday. In an extensive testimony, the organization documents the history of Mary, an 80 -year -old old woman who represents thousands who, like her, have been thrown into absolute poverty by a system that promised them social protection and paid them with abandonment.
The Cuban State recognizes that about 40% of retirees receive the minimum pension. However, according to the text, “the minister [ahora exministra de Trabajo y Seguridad Social]… conveniently forgot that about 40% of those withdrawn in Cuba charge the minimum retirement. “Many others are added to that figure who,” although they receive a little more, cannot lead a decent life in their old age, after having worked an entire life for the revolution. “
This month, the government announced an increase in those pensionswhich will pass from about 1,500 CUP to about 3,000. But that increase is considered insufficient by those affected. “That almost 40%… is going to collect twice: about 3,000 pesos; that does not even reach it to drink a glass of milk or eat a daily egg, much less a miserable chicken thigh.”
The Food Monitor Program points out that the problem is not only the amount of pensions, but the structural conditions that accompany them: “It questions the value of that increase if inflation, bad economic policies, centralized economy, abusive prices, dollarization, investments in the wrong sectors, migration, causes of population aging” are not eliminated.
The government’s response, far from recognizing the crisis, has been denial. The former Minister of Work and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó denied before Parliament The existence of beggars in the streets of the island (said they were “disguised” individuals who have opted for “an easy way of life” and for participating in “illegal economic activities” to evade the treasury).
Against this official speech, Maria’s testimony reveals a life marked by sacrifice and abandonment. Exmaestra literacy, retired with cancer and without resources, ended up rummaging in brass of garbage, first to survive, then because it had no alternative. “Thus, Maria, who had gone to literate the Sierra, who had been a teacher, Merolica and Buza, ended in the street.”
The text also denounces the collapse of the social assistance system. “Since that time, when he had to fix them on his own, Maria understood that neither the government nor the state aid institutions would be available to her.”
After losing his home for the collapse of a lot, he was sent to a state shelter. But overcrowding, lack of water and food, and the rejection of other inmates for their smell, forced her to flee. “Maria began to smell bad … they called her crazy.”
Already on the street, his situation became unsustainable: “For the day, he stirred the brass; at night, he slept in the parks or in some portal. No one wanted to look at her; nobody wanted to take care of her; not even the crowded social project to whom he had dedicated his life.”
Criticism of the government is direct and forceful: “The crazy is the [ex]Minister, who refuses to see the thousands of people diving in the tanks, who ask for money in the streets, who have no families or social assistance. ”
The text concludes with a devastating image: Maria, pushing an old potato save throughout the city, loading the cards that he uses as a mattress, without hope, without future, with nothing. “With eight decades in his ribs … he only has to drag an old sack of potatoes throughout the city … until the day he doesn’t open his eyes anymore.”
