“Nothing here except what people don’t want”

No medicines here, and no, the giant poster is not for sale

I loved Efecto Cocuyo’s via crucis through several government-owned Farmapatria drug stores.

“In the Ipasme location, we read the list to the sales person and he did not even wait until hearing the entire list before blurting out: “we have nothing here. Here we only have what people do not want.” After listening to our list, he reached for a bottle of rubbing alcohol, the only product in our list that they had in stock. He reiterated that they do not have enough stock, and invited us to visit private drug stores Farmatodo and Locatel. Nevertheless, we saw packs of ultra-thin condoms and one brand of cough syrup on the shelves.”

A few years ago, Hugo Chávez launched Farmapatria as a way of offering medicine at a discount. It seems that, as its name clearly says, the only thing they sell these days is one big, fat, juicy lump of patria.

It says a lot about our media landscape that these kinds of stories are not covered in mainstream media outlets. One more reason to support Efecto Cocuyo.