Under Pressure from Trump, Cuban Leader Calls for ‘Urgent’ Economic Change
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the private sector needed more autonomy, as the island confronts a U.S. oil blockade that has deepened a humanitarian crisis.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní and David C. Adams
New York Times March 2, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/world/americas/cuba-economy-change-communism.html?searchResultPosition=4
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.
Mr. 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,” Mr. Díaz-Canel said in a speech to the Council of Ministers, the highest body of the government, according to state media.
Mr. 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 Mr. Díaz-Canel’s speech.
Earlier 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, Mr. 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,” Mr. Trump told reporters last week, adding that his government was in talks with the Cuban government.
Mr. Díaz-Canel called on 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 on 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 Mr. 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 Mr. 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,” Mr. 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.”
Luis Ferré-Sadurní is a Times reporter covering immigration in the New York region.
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La Joven Cuba: Economists weigh in on new rules for partnerships between state-owned and private companies in Cuba
The partnership between state-owned and private companies in Cuba—including micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives—now has a legal framework that modifies, to some extent, the rules of the game of the existing business structure, by allowing two main modalities: the creation of mixed Limited Liability Companies (SRL), through which both sectors can constitute a new entity with shared capital, and Economic Association Contracts, a more flexible formula that allows cooperation in a common project without creating a new legal entity.
At La Joven Cuba, we consulted three economists to find out how they value this new regulatory framework, established in Decree-Law 114/2025, published in Official Gazette No. 24 on March 3, along with Resolution 8 of the Ministry of Economy and Planning, dated January 23, which includes the procedure for the evaluation and approval of these modalities.
For Dr. Ileana Díaz Fernández, it is a "long-awaited standard and its publication is no less important for that."
"It may be very welcome for certain businesses, however, some aspects are striking: a) discretion, b) excessive administrative framework and c) the big question is whether the state-owned company will have all the necessary autonomy to make decisions without needing to ask for permission and therefore be as quick as in the private sector, in any modality, and worse when a new legal personality is created."
"At the last meeting of the Council of Ministers, it was mentioned that the company does not make use of the autonomy that has been granted to it, but it is not all that it needs, and it is far removed from that which the private sector possesses."
The economist, who has specialized in studying the Cuban business world, points out that "today there are state-owned and private companies that do business with good results," however she believes that these relationships should be done "with less burden of approvals."
"I hope these partnerships work out; it would mean a change in the efficient performance of state-owned enterprises, which is so needed. It could be beneficial for private companies, among other things, because of the scale, but it comes with risks."
However, the doctor points out that what is required, and it is not understood why it is not being done, is the transformation of state-owned enterprises and the approval of the Law, all within the framework of a comprehensive reform.
Unlike Ileana Díaz, economist Omar Everleny Pérez places the emphasis on the private sector. He believes that the Decree "attempts to implement what a group of economists has been proposing in recent years to overcome the deep economic crisis facing Cuba, which is the development of the non-state sector of the economy."
"Article 1.1, section a), is very illustrative, as it allows for the formation of mixed limited liability companies, that is, the creation of a new company where the partner entities can contribute assets or rights, or transfer their respective equity to this new company. It is clear that the State has many facilities that are currently idle or only partially utilized due to a lack of foreign currency to purchase supplies, and the private sector can contribute to their recovery here."
"The problem is that the Cuban state has undergone several reforms and counter-reforms in recent years, and under these conditions, it's very difficult to break the belief that a partnership can be dissolved whenever it no longer suits the state. There are plenty of examples of this; it has happened to many joint ventures between the state and foreign private businesses that, after a reasonable period of time and progress for the company, have their contracts terminated, as with certain productions or entities of Suchel, the Food Industry, and so on."
"Article 29.1 of the Decree is particularly appealing, especially regarding business autonomy. It specifies that the newly created limited liability company (SRL) can import or export directly without needing an intermediary company, as is currently the case for private micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). It is also beneficial to know that the number of employees is determined by the newly created company itself."
"In general, if the approved measures are followed faithfully, this could contribute to increased production of goods and services, although past experiences have not been encouraging. However, the current state of the Cuban economy, almost bankrupt and under a stronger siege than ever before from the United States, necessitates a more comprehensive reform, encompassing the monetary and financial sphere as well as other pending issues," a point of contact with the opinion of Dr. Ileana Díaz.
According to economist Carlos Enrique González, "this is a proposal that has been circulating for some time, as it would provide a framework for the genuine integration of social (state) and private (non-state) ownership, going beyond the limited mechanisms currently available for renting premises or financing production. From now on, it will be possible to have true enterprises that link social and private ownership, focused on production and development in Cuba. This is a crucial step in the reform process underway in the country."
"It's important to clarify that these types of enterprises in no way distance us from the goals of socialist construction, nor do they represent any setback in social ownership or its central role within the means of production in Cuba. Quite the contrary. Under current conditions, the social or state-owned productive sector is in dire straits, facing significant limitations in its operation and financing. A proposal like this will help strengthen and enhance the productive capacity of the state sector, while simultaneously creating a link between this sector and the national private sector, which can only be positive for Cuba's future."
Some key elements of the approved proposal:
– Approval through the MEP and the Institute of Non-State Actors may represent a limitation, which instead of helping the process flow, incorporates additional barriers, not linked to business issues.
– The lack of transparency regarding who owns the socially owned productive sector is a significant limitation. Who will act as a counterpart to the private business owner? A state-owned enterprise (OSDE), a branch ministry, the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP), or the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP)? It's unclear. The existence of a body that centralized state or social enterprise ownership and acted as a clear and defined representative of the owner would have been a significant advantage for this type of partnership.
– A very important advantage of this type of partnership is that it provides a legal path for the growth of private companies in Cuba, which, now associated with state-owned enterprises, will be able to have a much broader and deeper field of development, without necessarily having to compete with the state sector, but rather they will be able to grow alongside it.
– The fetish that social property is only that in which the State has 100% ownership is broken. Any company or association in which the State has a stake is also social property.
“It is fundamental and highly advantageous to expressly clarify that these joint ventures will not be subject to the economic plan. This is especially important considering that being subject to the Plan today only means being bound by the allocations it makes, which in practice represent significant business limitations.” According to this economist, “in the future, when the way planning is done in Cuba is transformed and becomes truly financial in nature, capable of charting the course of Cuba’s development, these new companies being created today must be taken into account and will play a fundamental role in Cuba’s development as a country and the advancement of its socialist construction process.”
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