As far as I can tell _ssl works properly. However, test_ssl returns FAIL at some very basic levels, e.g.
...
test_constructor (test.test_ssl.ContextTests) ... ERROR
...
test_protocol (test.test_ssl.ContextTests) ... ERROR
test_python_ciphers (test.test_ssl.ContextTests) ... ok
test_session_stats (test.test_ssl.ContextTests) ... ERROR

When using applications that depend on python (e.g., git) and getting "SSL" related errors - doing 

export SSL_CERT_FILE=/var/ssl/somefile.pem

the problems go away. However, it looks asif that variable is not being used by python (3.7).

Given: AIX openssl does not have a default CAFile nor CAPath, etc., only that openssl.cnf is at /var/ssl/openssl.cnf. Also - AIX openssl.base does not include any certificates.

Question: does python have a documented (or undocumented) env variable it uses to look for, provide, or override a system/distribution default?