Under pressure from Trump, Cuban leader calls for ‘urgent’ economic change.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
By LUIS FERRÉ-SADURNÍ and DAVID C. ADAMS
President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba called on Monday for an “urgent” transformation of the country’s economic model, according to Cuban state media, as Cuba confronts an oil blockade by the Trump administration that has deepened a humanitarian crisis on the island.
Díaz-Canel spoke of the need to give municipalities and the Cuban private sector more autonomy, urged more foreign investment in the energy sector and called for a “resizing of the state apparatus,” according to state media.
“We must focus immediately on implementing the most urgent and necessary transformations to the economic and social model,” Díaz-Canel said in a speech to the Council of Ministers, the highest body of the government, according to state media.
Díaz-Canel’s calls for change, which were vague and light in details, appeared to be a direct response to the United States’ increased pressure on the communist regime and a stark acknowledgment of the toll the U.S. oil blockade has inflicted on Cuba, which is facing one of its most severe economic and humanitarian crisis in decades.
Cuban leaders have long promised to reform the inefficient and centrally controlled economy, before backtracking over fears of losing political control. Those proposals have become more urgent as the 67-year-old communist government confronts an existential crisis, according to experts who expressed skepticism about Díaz-Canel’s speech.
This year, the Trump administration blocked fuel shipments from Venezuela to Cuba, once the island’s main source of foreign oil, and announced tariffs on any country that shipped oil to Cuba, largely cutting off the island from oil imports and worsening an already painful energy shortage.
The U.S. blockade has contributed to blackouts that have virtually paralyzed the economy. The Cuban government has cut back on school hours, called off surgeries at hospitals, reduced public transportation and limited gasoline sales, leaving many residents to bike or walk to work. Food prices have shot up as tons of imported food shipments have been held up at ports.
After the United States led military attacks on Venezuela and Iran, two of Cuba’s closest allies, Trump hinted that bringing down the Cuban government may be next, leading to divergent views from Cubans who are afraid of a military intervention, but also want to see the communist government toppled.
“Maybe we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba,” Trump told reporters last week, adding that his government was in talks with the Cuban government.
Díaz-Canel called Monday for a “macroeconomic stabilization” of the economy, according to state media, encouraging municipalities to increase partnerships with the private sector and promote investments from Cubans living abroad. He also called for a ramp-up in food production, after a staggering drop in domestic production in recent years left the country increasingly dependent on a growing but heavily restricted private sector.
Cuba has been undergoing a tentative opening of the private sector since 2021, with the creation of hundreds of private small-to-medium businesses limited to 100 employees each. More recently, the private sector grew after a series of reforms allowing private ownership of a wide range of businesses, including construction, clothing, food production, software development, small hotels, bars, restaurants and private taxi services.
But experts have questioned whether the country can achieve more far-reaching change without a greater dismantling of the state’s control over the economy.
“This is not a genuine reflection on much-needed and long overdue change,” said Ricardo Torres, a Cuban-born economist at American University. He described the Cuban president’s proposals Monday as “change so that everything remains the same.”
Carlos Miguel Pérez Reyes, a businessman and member of Cuba’s legislature, said in a Facebook post that Díaz-Canel’s speech was “necessary,” but lacked a clear plan to bolster the private sector.
“Beyond the speech, what is needed is an implementation program with clear priorities, defined responsibilities, deadlines and popular control,” he wrote.
The comments by Díaz-Canel came a week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants with a hard-line stance against the island’s communist regime, said the United States was open to seeing gradual economic and political change on the island.
“Cuba needs to change,” Rubio said last week on Saint Kitts and Nevis. “And it doesn’t have to change all at once. It doesn’t have to change from one day to the next. Everyone is mature and realistic here. We’re seeing that process play out, for example, in Venezuela.”
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