The Cuban regime seems willing to open a small crack in its economic wall.
The Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, announced that foreign companies will be able to directly hire Cuban workers, without the mediation of the traditional state employment entities.
The phrase that, in any other country, would be a simple legal update; in Cuba, it sounds almost revolutionary.
The announcement came during a recent television interview on 'La Salita de Alma', a lighthearted segment on Alma Plus TV that the regime has transformed into a showcase for its rising figures, such as the “not first lady” Lis Cuesta Peraza, who was also interviewed in that segment.
There, Pérez-Oliva —nephew-great-grandson of Fidel and Raúl Castro— defended the alleged "new incentives" that the government would be implementing to attract foreign investment: reduction of bureaucratic timelines, flexibility in the usage of foreign currencies, and, above all, the possibility for investors to choose whether to hire their staff directly or through a state company.
At the end of November, during the opening of the VIII Investment Forum in Havana, the newly appointed Vice Prime Minister promised a "more modern, agile, and transparent" environment for foreign investment and mentioned for the first time this innovation in the hiring of Cuban personnel by foreign companies.
The nuance may seem technical, but in Cuba, it touches on a very sensitive political issue. Since the mid-1990s, no foreign entrepreneur can freely hire Cuban workers.
That prohibition was established by the Law 77 of 1995, repealed in 2014 by the Law 118 on Foreign Investment, which theoretically updated the legal framework to attract foreign capital.
However, the new legislation kept the same labor scheme intact: every foreign company must hire its personnel through state employment entities, designated by the Ministry of Foreign Trade (MINCEX) and authorized by the Ministry of Labor.
Only in “exceptional” cases, and with explicit authorization from the government, a joint venture could hire its employees directly.
In practice, those exceptions have never been applied, and the system continues to operate as it did three decades ago: the investor pays in foreign currency to the employer, and the employer compensates the workers in Cuban pesos, keeping the difference.
The model, designed to maintain political and financial control over the workforce, has been criticized by economists and international organizations as a modern form of labor servitude, in which the State simultaneously acts as employer, intermediary, and beneficiary of labor exploitation.
A crack (well controlled) in the model
That a minister is now speaking about "direct contracting" sounds like a paradigm shift. However, the reality, as is often the case in Cuba, is less bold than the headline suggests.
Pérez-Oliva did not present any official document, decree, or legal modification to support the change. Everything remained just words, and words in Cuba carry less weight than the stamps of the Official Gazette.
Even so, the mere fact that the great-nephew of the Castros has said that phrase on television marks a significant turn in discourse.
In times of crisis, with investor doubts and the exodus of human capital, the regime seems to be considering concessions that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: allowing a foreign company to pay a Cuban worker directly in foreign currency—something that has been a political taboo for decades.
We are opening the range to the investor's choice, said the minister, in a pragmatic tone. A statement that, if applied literally, would mean removing the State's role as a labor intermediary, and thereby one of its most reliable sources of foreign currency.
However, business sources consulted by CiberCuba claim that, for now, there is no operational mechanism to implement that "flexibilization," and that hiring continues to be processed under the same regulations.
There are those who will continue as they have until now, with the employer entity, because they are satisfied with their service and there are those who will choose to do it directly,” Pérez-Oliva stated, leaving in the air suspicions about the legal basis and legal security that support the decision.
The supposed "investor selection" appears, for now, to be a symbolic gesture to project an image of modernization to foreign partners.
Paper reforms, camera propaganda
The context is not coincidental. Pérez-Oliva has become one of the most visible faces of the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
His rise —from first vice minister to minister and then to vice prime minister— reflects Raúl Castro's strategy of repositioning young leaders with historical surnames to ensure continuity of the regime while maintaining control.
His media exposure has grown in recent months: interviews, protocol visits, and statements about "transparency" and "digitalization" of foreign trade. A visibility campaign that aims to present him as the technocratic face of the "new economic stage," while foreign investment figures remain plummeted and the economy continues in recession.
During the interview, the minister repeated the classic lines: the U.S. "blockade," the "internal difficulties," the "resilience of the people." But amidst those predictable phrases, he slipped in an announcement that could become his international calling card: a Cuba where foreign entrepreneurs can hire Cubans directly.
The detail—no less significant—is that there is no evidence that this measure has begun to be implemented. No foreign company established in the Mariel Special Zone has confirmed that it is hiring without an employer. Nor has MINCEX published any resolution that modifies the current labor regulations.
In other words: Pérez-Oliva seems to be selling smoke, or promising something that it appears the Cuban regime is still not willing to fulfill.
The Minister of Gestures
This is not the first time the young minister has made eye-catching announcements without any concrete results. In 2024, he presented himself as the "manager" of the debt restructuring with China and Russia, a process of which no closure has ever been reported.
He has also promised to streamline the "one-stop shop" for investors, digitize procedures, and attract foreign capital to sectors such as energy and tourism. To date, the figures are stubborn: foreign direct investment in Cuba remains stagnant at below 2% of GDP, one of the lowest rates in Latin America.
A controlled bet
The announcement regarding direct hiring seems to be part of an image strategy: to present the great-nephew of the Castros as a reformist, while not allowing him to reform anything.
The measure grants international visibility and reinforces the notion that "something is changing" in Cuba, without jeopardizing the core of state control over the economy and the workforce.
If it were ever implemented —even on an experimental basis— it could set an explosive precedent: workers getting paid directly in foreign currency, without state mediation, and foreign companies negotiating salaries and contracts outside the framework of political control.
But the minister himself hinted at caution: everything will depend on “the choice of the investor” and “the characteristics of the business.” Free translation: the government will have the final word.
A regulation still in effect
Pérez-Oliva's opening speech contrasts with the Cuban legislation still in force.
The Regulation for the Employment of Cubans by Foreign Companies, published in the Official Gazette No. 40 on September 29, 2015, explicitly states that “Cuban citizens and permanent residents can only provide services in foreign entities if they have previously established their employment relationship with a Cuban employer.”
The regulation, issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, prohibits any direct employment relationship between foreign companies and Cuban workers, mandates that payments be made in Cuban pesos, and requires authorization from the corresponding state agency for each hiring.
Nothing indicates that this regulation has been repealed or modified. Therefore, for the time being, the minister's announcement lacks legal support and seems more like a political gesture —a promise to the investing public— than a measure that can be practically implemented.
A new face for an old system
At only 53 years old, Pérez-Oliva Fraga has become the young face of immobility. His lineage carries more weight than his management, and his speech blends technocracy with recycled fidelism.
His promise of direct hiring is, so far, a statement without a decree, a gesture without substance. Yet it remains revealing: it shows that the regime, cornered by the crisis, needs to appear flexible in order to remain the same.
And in that strategy of "reform without change," the grand-nephew of the Castros plays the perfect role: the white-gloved reformer who announces openings that never quite open, thus perfecting the art of perpetuating himself in power, in which his great-uncle achieved notable mastery.
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