Cuba’s revolutionary generation face old age with promises unfulfilled

Cuba’s revolutionary generation face old age with promises unfulfilled

Older Cubans are struggling to make ends meet on tiny pensions as the country pivots towards private enterprise

In central Havana, Martha Ortega has been queueing for mince. She has both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis causing her foot to drag, but she remains stylish, a checked shirt and denim handbag giving her the air of an 80-year-old cowgirl.

Until five years ago, Ortega was a receptionist in a local office of the Communist party of Cuba. Her pension is 1,575 pesos a month, but in the last three years, inflation has reduced its value to less than $5. “I try to spread it between food, medicines, whatever I can,” she says.

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