News · Economy
elTOQUE: pensioners in Cuba report three months of delays in payments from Europe
Retirees, widows and families who receive pensions and aid sent from Europe have gone about three months without being paid regularly, and are not paid in cash, according to an anonymous account collected by elTOQUE on November 4.
The complaint was made to elTOQUE by a person who asked to remain anonymous and who says the problem affects both Cubans and foreigners living on the island, including retirees, widows and families of children with health problems who receive humanitarian aid.
One of those affected is the writer's mother, a widow who receives 600 EUR a month: of the three months owed, she has been paid only one and two are still outstanding. On other occasions, the account says, there were months when she was simply not paid and the bank gave no answer.
The form of payment has changed several times. According to the account, the mother has received the foreign pension since 2018 and collected it in cash for the first few years; between 2021 and 2022 that stopped and she moved to an MLC card (freely convertible currency, the hard-currency balance used by Cuban banks), then to the Clásica card, and now she has been asked to switch to the Tropical card because it is supposedly “more stable.”
The complainant maintains that the money leaves Europe on time and in full every month and that cash is the only acceptable form of payment given the peso's steep devaluation. That, the account says, was one of the demands raised at a meeting held on October 23, 2026 between Central Bank of Cuba officials and a representative of the pensioners, at which officials said they were not aware of any months having gone unpaid.
After that meeting some deposits began to arrive, gradually and incompletely, but those paid through Banco Metropolitano reportedly remain unpaid: “14 people at Banco Metropolitano, both Cubans and foreigners, still have not been paid their pensions; nobody knows where the money is, but we do know Italy sent it and it has not shown up for four months,” the account says, in remarks translated by Yamacoa.
The first thing the pensioners were warned, according to the complaint, was not to post about the matter on social media, and many fear reprisals because that money supports their families. Despite the warning, a group of women is organising in a WhatsApp chat and is considering hiring a lawyer and, as a last resort, going public.
elTOQUE recalls that it has documented similar cases before: in July 2025 it told the story of the widow of a Spanish citizen who received 803 EUR a month and faced constant delays, and whom the bank offered to pay in Cuban pesos or in MLC; while the bank paid the euro at between 136 and 146 CUP, on July 1, 2025 elTOQUE's reference rate put it at 425 CUP.
Sources: elTOQUE · Serie Yamacoa: Euro en el mercado informal (elTOQUE (tasa representativa))
Data updated: 2026-11-04T16:15:00.000Z