A man with mental health issues set fire to his own apartment in Alamar, the densely populated neighborhood of East Havana, after running out of medication and with authorities not responding to requests for hospitalization made by his family.
A video shared on Facebook shows the aftermath of the fire while several women can be heard explaining what happened with a mix of indignation and sorrow.
"Those of us who can’t take it anymore are the neighbors, who have not yet admitted him, and it was known that this was going to happen," said one neighbor, who claimed that the man lives amidst piles of trash in his home.
"I imagine he must not have any medication," another added.
The testimonies starkly summarize a reality that thousands of Cuban families face daily: patients with mental illnesses are left to fend for themselves because the State does not provide the necessary medications or ensure timely hospitalization when situations become dangerous.
Alamar, with around 100,000 inhabitants distributed across Soviet-style apartment blocks, is a densely populated area facing recurring issues with infrastructure and access to healthcare. The neighborhood has been the scene of several fires in recent years, some linked to chronic blackouts.
The issues due to the lack of nerve medications in Cuba are not isolated.
In January 2025, a mother from Banes, Holguín, publicly requested help to build a cell within her own home because she lacked medication to treat her son's mental illness and feared he could pose a danger to the family.
In April of this year, another family reported that their son with a mental illness was left without amitriptyline or folic acid.
The scarcity of psychotropic medications in Cuba is structural. Last July, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, acknowledged that only between 30% and 32% of the essential medicine list—around 650 medications—was available in the country. Among the most affected are amitriptyline, risperidone, quetiapine, clonazepam, and sertraline.
Given the impossibility of obtaining them in state pharmacies, many families resort to the black market, where prices far exceed pensions and salaries.
The mental health crisis driven by self-medication has become another direct consequence of the pharmaceutical collapse.
Psychiatric hospitals also do not offer a dignified alternative.
In 2025, they documented abuse, patient restraints, and neglect in facilities in Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara, and Guantánamo.
The combination of medication shortages, lack of institutional response to requests for hospitalization, and the deterioration of community mental health services leaves thousands of Cuban families trapped in a hopeless situation, like the one that ended in flames this week in Alamar.
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