A photo of the late Cuban President Fidel Castro sits alongside photos of Mercedes Lopez Rey’s family on a bedside table at the 83-year-old’s home in Old Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s elderly are among those bearing the heaviest burden of the island’s deepening economic crisis, which has worsened since the start of the year after an oil embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Even before the latest downturn, Cuba already had one of the oldest populations in Latin America, shaped by long life expectancy and low birth rates.
By the end of 2024, nearly 26% of Cuba’s population was age 60 or older, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics, almost twice the regional average of 14.2% reported by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Many are former state workers living on meager pensions, facing cuts to long-subsidized goods and increasing loneliness as younger Cubans continue to emigrate. Over the past five years, Cuba’s population has fallen by nearly 1.5 million, largely because of migration.
The island’s elderly were young when Fidel Castro entered Havana. Now, in old age, they are confronting a new period of scarcity that is testing how far pensions, rationed goods and personal resilience can stretch. The impact is visible in daily life: Elderly people walk the streets alone, stand in long lines for bread and rice, and increasingly depend on churches and some state institutions for basic meals.
One such place is the Church of the Holy Spirit in Old Havana, where nearly 50 elderly residents gather three times a week for a modest hot meal of ground meat, rice, red beans and crackers topped with mayonnaise. For many, the meals offer more than nourishment. They provide a small measure of routine, relief and company during long days of shortages, outages and solitude.
Among them was Mercedes Lopez Rey, a retired engineer who until her death went to the church three times a week as worsening conditions made daily life increasingly difficult. Lopez also picked up food for her friend Julia Barcelo, who had breast cancer and was unable to leave her home.
Another regular is Carmen Casado, an 84-year-old retired chemical engineer who depends on the meals because her monthly pension of 2,000 Cuban pesos is worth about $4 at the informal exchange rate used by many Cubans. She has no children, receives no remittances from relatives abroad, and lives alone on the upper floors of a deteriorating 19th-century building, one of many in Havana showing the strain of age and neglect. Despite the poverty and loneliness, she still places her faith in the government and blames the island’s hardships on the United States.
___
This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.
Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, stands in her one-room apartment in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, holds out her cup to be filled with water in a dining hall adjacent to the Church of the Holy Spirit, where a church-run program provides free meals to seniors three times a week, in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Elderly residents watch a tai chi class for seniors at the Belen Convent in Old Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Iris Cecilia Ramirez runs errands in Old Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, center front, and other elderly residents wait to be served a free meal in a dining hall adjacent to Church of the Holy Spirit where seniors gather three times a week for a free meal, in Old Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Carmen Casado, 84, is served a free meal of ground meat, rice, red beans and crackers through a program run by the Church of the Holy Spirit at a dining hall adjacent to the church in Old Havana, Cuba, Thursday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey holds a framed cyanotype with an image of the late Cuban President Fidel Castro and prayer cards tucked into the edges of the frame, in her home in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Maribel Ezcurra, 77, a retired milling machine mechanic, practices tai chi with fellow seniors in a park in the Playa neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, walks past uncollected trash on her way to her one-room apartment in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Elderly residents arrive at the Church of the Holy Spirit to receive free meals provided through a church-run program held three times a week, in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Carlos Lugo, 82, shows off a pair of jeans he received from charity before entering the dining hall adjacent to the Church of the Holy Spirit, where a church-run program offers free meals to seniors three times a week, in Old Havana, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)An elderly man who has an amputated leg rides a hand-powered tricycle in Old Havana. Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Julia Barcelo, 83, who is recovering from breast cancer treatment, and a visiting relative watch television at her home in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)A woman steps over a puddle while walking through Old Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Carmen Casado, 84, looks through her wardrobe at her home in Old Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Seen through the window of a passing American classic car, seniors stand in line to buy bread in Old Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, carries a meal from a church-sponsored program to a homebound friend, in Old Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, right, visits with her friend Julia Barcelo, 83, who is recovering from breast cancer treatment, after bringing her a meal from a church-sponsored program, in Old Havana. Cuba, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Mercedes Lopez Rey, 83, stands in her bathroom, holding open a patio door as a visitor leaves her one-room apartment in Old Havana, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Carmen Casado, 84, sits on her bed in her home in Old Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)An elderly man makes his way in his wheelchair while a friend walks a bicycle beside him, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.
