The Cuban international lawyer and banker Alberto Luzárraga states that Cuba has no option but to immediately dollarize its economy, following the models of Ecuador and Panama, as the only quick way to halt the monetary collapse that is destroying the purchasing power of Cubans.
"We start by dollarizing; we have no choice but to begin by dollarizing the economy, as Ecuador and Panama have done," declared Luzárraga in an interview with CiberCuba, after participating in a symposium on the Helms-Burton Law organized by Patria de Martí.
Luzárraga, based in Miami and holding a master's degree in Law from Harvard, bases his proposal on the terminal state of the Cuban financial system.
"There is no banking system in the classic sense that a bank exists to receive deposits from the public and make loans to companies that deserve credit because they are trustworthy and profitable. That does not exist in Cuba," he warned.
The expert points out that reorganizing the Central Bank and the banking system is a lengthy process that cannot be improvised, and that Cuba does not have that time.
"Monetary policy is not improvised overnight," he emphasized, dismissing the idea that institutional reconstruction can precede stabilization.
For Luzárraga, the dollar would resolve the most pressing issue: ensuring that Cubans know what to expect.
"If people don't know what to expect, they don't know the value of their money today and tomorrow; no one wants to have a business, and no one can operate like that," he explained.
The economist also outlines a roadmap: first the dollar, then institutional reconstruction, and eventually a return to the Cuban peso.
"We need to start by reorganizing the Central Bank so that it becomes a true issuing Central Bank and restructuring the banking system, and when we achieve that and have a stable economy without inflation, we can return to the Cuban peso," he specified.
His statements come at the worst monetary moment in Cuba in decades. In December 2025, the regime recorded the highest official devaluation in the world that year: 242%, rising from 120 to 410 Cuban pesos per dollar.
In the informal market, the dollar rose to 515 Cuban pesos in March-April 2026, while the average salary on the island is less than 10 dollars per month.
The Cuban GDP per capita fell to $1,082.8, the lowest in Latin America according to ECLAC, following a 5% contraction in 2025.
Luzárraga describes the situation with a phrase that summarizes the magnitude of the disaster: "On a scale from 1 to 10, Cuba is at 10.5. It's difficult."
The debate about dollarization is not new in the economic circles of the exile community. Cuban-American businessman Carlos Saladrigas acknowledged in March 2026 that Cuba meets most of the conditions for dollarization, although he prefers a prior stabilization phase for the peso lasting two to four years, with a cost between 6,000 and 10,000 million dollars.
Luzárraga dismisses that wait and points directly to the root of the problem: “The only way to achieve that is to at least stop the issuance. If you eliminate the Cuban peso and remove the issuance, and lower it to another convertible currency like the dollar, then there is no choice but to set reasonable and real prices.”
The Ecuadorian model supports its argument: when Ecuador adopted the dollar in January 2000 to combat hyperinflation and the banking crisis, inflation fell from 96% in 1999 to 7% in 2001.
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