With barren shelves at state-run outlets, Cubans say they pay ‘exorbitant’ street prices to get needed meds
HAVANA — Galaino Street in Centro Habana plays home to all sorts of commerce: people selling bowls, rice cookers and fans.
But there’s something else that people are selling: medicines.
In 2021, due to a severe lack of medicine, the government allowed Cubans to bring pretty much as much medicine as they wanted into the country, but legally, they cannot sell it. The police turn a blind eye.
“I have a heart condition. I am on a heart transplant protocol. My medication has not come in anymore,” Havana resident Eulises Darias said. “Where do I have to buy it? On the black market, at exorbitant prices.”
That is set to change.
On Wednesday, the Cuban government announced that the private sector will soon be able to open its own pharmacies.
“There need to be more medications in the pharmacy so people do not have to buy them on the street,” Havana resident Yudisleisis Garbey said.
Shelves in many pharmacies are completely barren. But it didn’t used to be like that.
Up until 2020, pharmacies in Cuba had most of the medicines people needed and they were sold at affordable prices that regular people could afford.
“All our lives, the state accustomed us to buying medications at the pharmacy at a low price,” Havana resident Iván Miray said.
Then came the pandemic and also maximum-pressure U.S. sanctions that bankrupted the country.
The Cuban government says that state pharmacies won’t shutter; they’re going to coexist with private sector pharmacies.
Hopefully, that will mean that regular Cubans have more access to medicine.
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