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The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) provided its official version this week regarding the severe medication crisis currently affecting Cuba, through an extensive report on Cubadebate.
Under the title "Control and Oversight: The Response of MINSAP to the Illegal Medication Market," health authorities blamed the U.S. embargo and international financial difficulties for the current shortage, but they avoided acknowledging the serious management errors that have brought the national pharmaceutical system to the brink of collapse.
The text, signed by the official journalist Frank Martínez Rivero, reported statements from the director of Medicines and Medical Technologies, Cristina Lara Bastanzuri, and the head of the Department of Pharmacies and Optics, Maylin Beltrán Delgado.
A half-hearted diagnosis for a total crisis
Both officials acknowledged that the country is experiencing an “almost total shortage” in the network of community pharmacies and that there is not even a regular supply of controlled medications for chronic patients.
However, the diagnosis they presented was partial: they largely attributed the situation to the economic and financial blockade by the United States, without acknowledging the internal causes that have deteriorated the system over the years.
According to the MINSAP, the national pharmaceutical industry has lost production capacity due to a lack of funding, the withdrawal of suppliers, and banking difficulties in making international payments.
While these factors exist and complicate operations, authorities have overlooked that Cuba has outstanding debts with countries like India, China, and Spain, and that technological obsolescence and corruption within BioCubaFarma are endemic problems that do not depend on Washington.
They also did not mention the lack of industrial maintenance, logistical inefficiency, or the absolute centralization that prevents the private sector from legally importing or manufacturing medications.
Instead of announcing a credible productive or international cooperation plan, the MINSAP focused its “institutional response” on surveillance and police control. In that regard, the officials boasted about having conducted over 5,000 inspections in pharmacies and maintaining close coordination with the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) to combat the illegal sale of medications.
Of the 33 "extraordinary events" detected, 18 were robberies at pharmacies and others involved workers within the health system itself. Nevertheless, the ministry addressed these issues as isolated crimes, failing to acknowledge that the black market is a direct consequence of shortages and the lack of official transparency.
The official discourse also aimed to dissuade the population from using medications imported by travelers or purchased from informal networks, warning about health and legal risks.
The MINSAP warned that those who resell controlled medications could be prosecuted for drug trafficking, a measure that seems more focused on criminalizing daily survival than on providing real solutions for those who cannot find their medicines in the state network.
Another line from the article by Cubadebate sought to present alleviation measures as accomplishments: the sales system through clinics, rotating shifts to avoid queues, the promotion of natural medicine, and the expansion of e-commerce in selected pharmacies.
However, none of these initiatives address the structural problem: the lack of essential medications and the State's inability to ensure a stable minimum supply.
In recent years, the shortage has worsened to unprecedented levels. Sources from within the sector estimate that more than 70% of the essential medicine supply is unavailable, and that the restocking cycles, which used to be 12 to 15 days, have now extended to 60 days or more.
The situation has pushed thousands of Cubans into the informal market, where prices multiply tenfold, leaving chronic patients without regular access to vital treatments.
The official version published by Cubadebate confirms what the population experiences every day: a prolonged health crisis that the government attempts to justify with the embargo, while avoiding any self-criticism regarding its state management model.
The MINSAP acknowledges the symptoms, but not the causes. Instead of restructuring the system, diversifying suppliers, or allowing private sector participation, it prefers to reinforce police and administrative controls that merely mask the collapse.
The result is a healthcare system that can no longer guarantee even the most basic medicines. Meanwhile, the regime insists on talking about "pharmaceutical sovereignty," when the reality is that dependence, debt, and inefficiency have left Cubans without pills, alternatives, and hope.
The Absent Minister: José Ángel Portal Miranda and the Responsibility He Fails to Acknowledge
The prolonged health and pharmaceutical crisis affecting Cuba has names and those responsible.
At the helm of MINSAP since 2018, José Ángel Portal Miranda has remained in the background during the worst months of system collapse, avoiding public explanations and sending his subordinates to address social discontent.
Her lack of media presence has become a symbol of opaque and failed management, incapable of providing transparency or real solutions to a population increasingly desperate for medicine or basic healthcare.
Since the current cycle of scarcity began, Portal Miranda has preferred to limit itself to bureaucratic speeches or propaganda messages about "institutional efforts," while directors and department heads appear in state media to justify the lack of medications, the loss of suppliers, or the rise of the black market.
Those officials repeat the arguments about the embargo and financial difficulties, but the minister, who is the political and executive head of the system, remains hidden, not providing clear figures or acknowledging internal errors.
His silence becomes even more scandalous when recalling his role during other recent crises. In October, Portal Miranda downplayed the epidemic outbreak in Matanzas and denied related deaths, despite local reports and citizen complaints that demonstrated otherwise.
One month later, the regime partially admitted its responsibility in the national epidemiological crisis, but the minister once again failed to appear in informational and accountability spaces.
The official publications from MINSAP repeat slogans of resistance and sovereignty, but avoid any self-criticism. Meanwhile, the deterioration of hospitals, the lack of medications, and the erosion of public trust grow daily.
In this context, Portal Miranda has lost legitimacy even among workers in the sector, who accuse him of running a directionless ministry and concealing the seriousness of the actual data.
The crisis of the Cuban healthcare system can no longer be explained solely by the embargo or the lack of external financing. It is also—and above all—the direct result of inefficient, authoritarian, and silent government management, led in Public Health by an official who refuses to be held accountable to the country that suffers the consequences of his incompetence.
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