‘A country that’s dying every day’: 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty

According to the “ 9th Study on Social Rights ” in Cuba published on Aug. 13, 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty, eight out of 10 have been forced to skip a meal during the day, and 95% disapprove of the governmentʼs economic and social management.

Yet behind these figures lie the stories of people who don’t know what they will eat the next day, the sick who can’t get their medications, and families surviving thanks to aid received from abroad.

Osvaldo Gallardo, a writer and Catholic layman originally from Camagüey, emigrated to the United States but maintains frequent contact with family and friends who remain on the island. From abroad, as a religious freedom activist, he closely follows a situation he says has become increasingly unbearable.

“What strikes me most is the infinite sadness, the absolute hopelessness, the listlessness, the desperation, and the anguish with which my relatives and everyone I know in Cuba live their daily lives,” Gallardo stated in an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

“It’s immeasurable; it’s a total lack of meaning in life, a loss of any sense of where we are headed or what our goals are,” he…