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The crisis of medications in Cuba has reached alarming levels. A country that for decades boasted of producing enough drugs to supply its healthcare system is now facing empty pharmacies, desperate patients, and an informal market where prices have skyrocketed beyond reach for most.
While the shelves remain empty in the state network, the same medications are appearing in the hands of resellers at exorbitant prices, in a situation marked by corruption, institutional neglect, and a healthcare system that many consider already collapsed.
On the social network Facebook, the user Cesario Navas publicly denounced this reality with a powerful message: “What is abnormal becomes normal in the land of Liborio: corruption, the controlled theft of medications, complicity, neglect… are these caused by the infamous blockade, or are they products of a government that survives on life support?”
Medications almost given away in the system… nonexistent in pharmacies
Navas cited two cardiovascular medications produced in Cuba as examples:
Isosorbide Dinitrate-10 (strip of 20 tablets), with an official price of 0.40 cents
Amlodipine 10 mg (10 tablets), with a state price of 4 CUP
However, according to their complaint, both are absent from pharmacies but reappear on the black market in downtown Havana, specifically at the portals of Águila and Reina, where they are sold at exorbitant prices:
Dinitrate: 500 CUP per strip
Amlodipine: 300 CUP for a strip of 10 tablets
"The official price of Dinitrate is 0.40 cents... and these scoundrel resellers are selling it for 500," he wrote, indignant.
Impunity and official silence
The complainant questioned the inaction of the authorities in the face of a phenomenon that occurs in broad daylight.
"What are the state inspectors and the PNR doing to reverse this painful and distressing reality? What are they dedicated to?" she asked.
It also pointed out the contradiction of a state that deploys constant surveillance and political repression, yet does not act against networks of corruption that directly affect the lives of citizens.
"These violations happen daily in a central area... why don't the DTI, the G-2, and the snitches on duty take action?" he added.
A healthcare system that hit rock bottom
The situation reflects a structural problem: the Cuban healthcare system, once showcased as an achievement of the Revolution, seems incapable of even providing basic medications to its population.
Meanwhile, the regime continues to send doctors and nurses abroad as part of its international missions, a lucrative source of income for the state, although these resources do not lead to visible improvements within the country.
The result is a population plunged into misery, forced to buy medicines on the black market, even exposing themselves to sanctions and prison sentences, in a cruel paradox: the medications exist, but not where they should be.
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