A 62-year-old Cuban, a survivor of two heart attacks, reported on Facebook that private pharmacies on the island are profiting from the people's illness at prices that no worker or retiree can afford.
Carlos Martell Díaz, a resident of Pilar de Colón Street in Matanzas, shows in the recording a blister pack of 10 clopidogrel tablets — an essential antiplatelet medication for heart patients — that he has just purchased for 500 Cuban pesos, barely enough for ten days of treatment.
"Look, I just got here... I just bought 10 pills for 500 pesos. This is outrageous," says the man, visibly upset, as he holds the medication in front of the camera.
The video accumulated over 114,000 views and nearly 900 comments, reflecting the significant impact of the protest among Cubans.
Martell Díaz suffered his most recent heart attack just five months ago and relies on clopidogrel to stay alive.
However, the price they charge him at the private pharmacy puts him in a brutal dilemma: pay or risk dying. "I have to buy, I search, I steal, whatever it takes, to get my pills," he admits in the video.
When he confronted the store employee, the response was that the price increase was justified because "food is expensive too." The complainant rejects that argument: "The dollar is rising, that's a lie, because I buy the pills; those who travel buy the pills up to a certain price, and here, what they sell you is a lack of respect."
The 500 pesos paid for ten tablets represent approximately 16% of the monthly minimum wage in Cuba, set at 3,210 pesos since July 2026 —equivalent to just over four dollars at the informal exchange rate—.
The minimum retirement pension is even lower: 3,056 pesos a month. For a chronic patient, covering that treatment month after month is mathematically impossible.
Martell Díaz goes further in his allegations, stating that several of these pharmacies do not even operate legally: "None of them have licenses; they are clandestine."
The scenario described is not isolated. The regime authorized the opening of private pharmacies run by micro, small, and medium enterprises (mipymes) and cooperatives through Decree 160/2026, with free pricing and oversight from MINSAP, effective from August 4.
At the beginning of September, 36 projects were being evaluated and 14 had received authorization. However, the prices documented in these establishments are prohibitive: pediatric cephalexin at 2,000 pesos, nystatin at 1,200 pesos, and vitamins ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 pesos.
The background is a structural pharmaceutical crisis. BioCubaFarma acknowledged in June 2026 that it could not guarantee nearly 300 of the 395 medicines committed to the healthcare system, facing a funding gap of over 250 million dollars.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged on Wednesday the shortage of medications and recognized the existence of an illegal market where imported products are resold at exorbitant prices, although he attributed the crisis to the U.S. embargo.
Clopidogrel is among the medications that are difficult to obtain in the Cuban state network, which drives patients like Martell Díaz to turn to the private or informal market at any cost.
"For the sick, for life. And for death. Because if you don't take it, you die. And the government doesn't have it. Specifically, they have it," summarizes the Cuban with a clarity that no official statement has matched.
"Enough of the abuse, gentlemen, how much longer are we going to put up with this?" he concludes in the video.
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