Long Lines at Havana Banks Due to Cash Shortage
“We need to withdraw more and more, and the banks are giving less and less,” lamented a frustrated citizen about inflation.
By Juan Diego Rodríguez (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – The branch of Havana’s Banco Metropolitano, located on La Rampa in El Vedado, was a hive of activity this Monday June 9th. The unease was palpable among the large crowd waiting at the doors for ATMs to be loaded with cash. “Where is my money, the money I worked 38 years for? A miserable pension check, and I can’t even take that home,” shouted a retired woman in the line.
Right when the bank opened at 8:30 a.m., the machines were stocked with cash, but barely two hours later, there wasn’t a peso left. Customers were left with only one option: to withdraw money inside the sweltering bank—without air conditioning due to “energy saving” measures—limited to 5,000 pesos per person (the equivalent to $13.50 USD). In other neighborhoods, like Luyano, the withdrawal limit is even lower: only 2,000 pesos ($5.50 USD).
Elsewhere, the scene is the same at banks across the capital—not just yesterday, but today and for several weeks now. People lying on sidewalks or camping in parks near bank branches. “There’s no money for the people, but the nouveaux riches who own private businesses and the Communist Party Central Committee folks are enjoying the dance of millions,” complained a sunburned professor under the blazing June sun, standing at the ATMs on Obispo Street. Relentless inflation and general hardship hit harder in the heat and amplify the discomfort of Havana residents.
Meanwhile, at a bank branch in the Diez de Octubre municipality, a Ministry of the Interior officer waited his turn in the shade of a tree, surrounded by people scattered across a park. “They don’t have a separate bank. Let them enjoy the Revolution—humane and socialist,” muttered a woman quietly to a family member, referring to the uniformed officer.
If you ask the waiting customers at random, they all say the same thing: they need more cash because everything has gotten so expensive. “An avocado costs 500 pesos. Any short ride in an almendrón [shared taxi] costs at least 250 pesos. I can easily spend between 1,000 and 2,000 pesos just on transportation,” explained a young man who works at a private business. “We need to withdraw more and more, and the banks are giving less and less,” he added, referring to inflation, which has even prompted changes in the vehicles used to transport money.
Although the most recent inflation data reported by the National Office of Statistics and Information—16.4% in May—is the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic, and significantly lower than the 31.11% recorded in May 2024, it is still high. No matter how much the government congratulates itself on a gradual decline in rising prices, ordinary Cubans—especially those without remittances from abroad—don’t see the difference in their daily lives, and neither, it seems, do the bank branches.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
Cuba is broken needs major changes transport and medical care is not available from the state private prices are 5 times what people can afford it is now more expensive than Mexico or India to go as a tourist or to live in
As a American living in Florida looking from the outside and married to a Cuban, I can’t process the miserable life there, but worse I can fathom why the people do not over throw the government pigs that eat the daily life there.