The Cuban international lawyer and banker Alberto Luzárraga stated this Friday, in an interview with CiberCuba, that the Island rates a 10.5 on a scale of difficulty from one to ten for any economic transition process, describing Cuba as a devastated country facing unprecedented complexity.
Luzárraga, based in Miami and holding a master's degree in Law from Harvard, made these statements one day after participating in a symposium on the Helms-Burton Act organized by Patria de Martí, where he discussed the complexities of claims for confiscated properties and the challenges of a potential privatization on the island.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, Cuba rates a 10.5. It's difficult," said the banking expert, who has direct experience managing the privatizations of confiscated companies in Latin America during the 80s and 90s.
For Luzárraga, the central problem is that the two basic requirements for any privatization process are absent in Cuba: "For there to be a privatization process, there must be a process of legal stability, which does not exist in Cuba. There must also be a process of social tranquility, which is also lacking."
The expert was emphatic in stating that the situation in Cuba is unlike any other transition processes: "In Cuba, we really have to create everything," he asserted, emphasizing that the island lacks a stock market and basic institutional infrastructure.
Luzárraga also warned that privatizations cannot be applied uniformly, citing the case of the confiscated agricultural estates as an example.
"It's not the same to privatize a farm that once belonged to a gentleman, which is now being cultivated by the market, than to do so for his great-grandson who happens to live in Washington state, is a computer engineer, and has no interest in growing tomatoes or owning a farm," he explained.
In that second case, he suggests a practical solution: "Let's hand over the farm, put it up for public auction to someone interested in growing tomatoes, and you will receive the auction proceeds minus any taxes you owe or relevant expenses."
A thorough audit of state-owned companies
Regarding state-owned enterprises, the banker was straightforward: "The first thing to do in Cuba is to conduct a thorough audit of the state companies and determine which ones are effective and which are not."
In that diagnosis, he included GAESA, the military conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy, covering tourism, remittances, telecommunications, and trade.
"There is this conglomerate, GAESA, which manages a number of companies run by the military, and some of them likely make money because they hold certain monopolies," he pointed out, making it clear that this model of profitability without real efficiency is part of the problem, not the solution.
The context in which these statements are made is one of a Cuba in free fall: the GDP contracted by 5% in 2025, accumulating a decline of 23% since 2019, and The Economist Intelligence Unit projects an additional contraction of 7.2% for 2026.
The Cuban peso experienced the largest official devaluation in the world in 2025—by 242%—with the dollar trading at over 515 pesos in the informal market. Power outages exceed 20-25 hours daily, and more than 600,000 Cubans have emigrated since 2022.
Luzárraga did not hide the emotional impact the situation has on him: "What I see now is a destroyed country. Frankly, it hurts me a lot every time I watch those videos. I was fortunate, even though I was young, to travel around the entire island, and sometimes I see places I used to know in a state of unrest and destruction that breaks my heart."
In the same interview, the expert suggested immediate dollarization as the first urgent measure, citing the models of Ecuador and Panama, and summed up with a phrase that encapsulates the logic that paralyzes any investment: "The economy is always listening to where people are breathing. When people are anxious, money doesn't move."
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