The historic speech by Jorge Mas Canosa, founder and leader of the Cuban American National Foundation (FNCA), delivered in 1990 at the iconic restaurant Victor’s Café 52 in New York, echoes powerfully today, as the exile community and the island grapple with the hope and challenge of rebuilding a free nation.
The video, recently shared by the Instagram profile Lo que nadie te cuenta (@loquenadietecontaraoficial), features an intervention where Mas Canosa outlined, with remarkable clarity and vision, the pillars of what he referred to as “the permanent and enduring Republic of Cuba,” based on a market economy, respect for private property, and the moral independence of the Cuban people.
"No one in Cuba is ready for democracy."
In Cuba, no one is prepared to establish a democratic system, let alone a free market economy, warned Mas Canosa before an audience of entrepreneurs, exiles, and politicians in New York.
What crime is there in us establishing a system, studies, to put it in the hands of those who will take over the government in Cuba? questioned after receiving harsh and constant criticism from Havana for trying to foresee a strategy for the country in a context far from communism.
Mas Canosa insisted that exiled Cubans not only had the right but also the duty to dream of a better republic: “All Cubans have the right to dream of the republic we want, the republic as Martí envisioned it, as each of us desires it.”
A republic without hatred, without corruption, and without guardianship
In his speech, the exiled leader urged to “lay the groundwork for a republic that does not last 20, 25, or 40 years with another political exile, with another political prison, with corruption and with deaths.”
For Mas Canosa, the true challenge for Cuba would not only be political, but rather “a problem of economic reconstruction and healing the moral and spiritual wounds of the Cuban people.”
He warned that “the worst thing that could happen to the Cuban nation is to have to depend on the help of any power, including the United States, for its economic recovery.”
The economic plan: from proletarians to property owners
Mas Canosa explained that he had arranged private commitments on Wall Street to finance the reconstruction of Cuba, without the intervention of the U.S. government. He believed that there were Cubans in the United States capable of implementing powerful strategies in this regard.
We have committed private capital for the reconstruction of Cuba, from the private sector of the United States to the private sector of Cuba, between 15 and 21 billion dollars, he stated at the time.
Among the immediate priorities identified by his team were “oil, food, and fertilizers,” essential for restarting national production.
The goal, he stated, was to "transform Cuba into a nation of owners, from proletarians to owners, from proletarians to entrepreneurs", emphasizing that "the Cuban must grow by himself".
"We do not need financial assistance."
In one of the most memorable passages, Mas Canosa expressed his gratitude to the United States, but warned about the importance of the new republic having organic growth and not being born with an unhealthy dependency on another state.
“There is no nation in the world that has opened its arms and its hearts to us and provided us with the opportunities that the United States has. That is why we cannot ignore Cuba's destiny alongside this nation, but we come to tell you that we do not need economic assistance. The only thing we want to ask this country is for there to be no tariffs, for there to be no duties, and for this country’s market to open to Cuban labor and products.”
According to their vision, “if Cuban products are considered within the national market of the United States as American products, Cuba will experience an unprecedented era of economic prosperity.”
Mas Canosa estimated in 1990 that the new republic would require “8 billion dollars in the first year to provide a meal, clothing, and education for every Cuban,” but he asserted that the exile community could raise “between 27 and 36 billion dollars for the country's economic reconstruction, without a single American cent.”
Jorge Mas Canosa, the man behind the dream
Jorge Mas Canosa was born in Santiago de Cuba on September 21, 1939, into a Catholic rural bourgeois family. From a young age, he demonstrated leadership and political commitment.
At the age of 15, he spoke out against Batista's dictatorship and was briefly imprisoned. After studying in the United States, he returned to Cuba in 1959, but soon realized that Fidel Castro's regime was betraying the democratic ideals for which he had fought.
Detained for "counter-revolutionary activities," he was released and exiled in Miami, where he joined Brigade 2506 and participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion. He worked as a delivery driver, longshoreman, and salesman until founding MasTec, an engineering and telecommunications company that made him a successful entrepreneur.
In 1981, he founded, along with Raúl Masvidal and Carlos Salman, the Cuban American National Foundation, one of the most influential lobbying organizations in the United States. Its influence in Washington was crucial for the approval of the Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) laws.
But Canosa also promoted the creation of Radio y Televisión Martí and led the program Éxodo, which brought together more than 10,000 Cuban families. He passed away in Miami on November 23, 1997.
In 2026, as the regime in Havana struggles and Cubans anticipate its end, Mas Canosa's words gain renewed strength amidst the debate over the political and economic future of the island. His dream of a free Cuba, devoid of hatred and foreign dependence, remains a roadmap for many both inside and outside the country.
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