The Cuban-American businessman Carlos Saladrigas, president of the Cuba Study Group, described the economic reforms announced by Miguel Díaz-Canel last Friday as insufficient, disorganized, and lacking legal foundation, although he acknowledged a certain optimism given that the Cuban regime seems to have accepted that changes are inevitable.
Saladrigas analyzed in an interview with Tania Costa the reform package presented by Díaz-Canel on June 12, framed within the "Economic and Social Program for 2026," which encompasses six key areas: economic management, municipal autonomy, business autonomy, agricultural recovery, foreign trade, and foreign investment.
"It is optimistic to see that, at least, it seems that the Cuban leaders have realized the profound changes they need to make," stated Saladrigas, although he immediately cautioned that the way in which these changes are being implemented presents three fundamental flaws.
The first and most visible, according to the businessman, is the pace and scale of the measures. “Incremental changes, at this point in the issue, given the complexity of the problem, do not work. What is needed here are wholesale changes, significant changes all at once, all coordinated, so that these changes can have a substantial impact on the economy,” he noted.
The second problem is of a structural and constitutional nature. Saladrigas warned that all the economic measures announced conflict with the Cuban Constitution of 2019, which states that private investment is secondary to the socialist economy.
"All these economic measures, although on the surface they are good and necessary, require a structural change at the core of the Cuban government, in its very constitution, in its own philosophy of governance," he explained.
"As long as there is this document stating that private investment and the private market are secondary to the socialist economy [...] all of this must be accompanied by very profound changes that are not necessarily economic, which they tend to ignore or overlook," he added.
The third flaw identified by Saladrigas is the absence of real liberation of civil society. "For a thriving economy, it is necessary to free not only the individual but also civil society," he said, calling for a new association law that would allow Cubans to organize, create guilds, and establish private associations—elements he considered "a fundamental part of the economic and social fabric of a country."
The businessman did highlight as a positive new development an announcement that, according to him, he heard for the first time: that the investment conditions will be the same for Cubans abroad and for Cubans on the island. "This is a very important change, but we still need to see the legal foundations for all of this," he clarified.
Days before Díaz-Canel's announcement, Saladrigas had already warned that there will be no serious investment in Cuba without fundamental political changes, without institutional guarantees, judicial independence, and effective protection of private property.
"In order for this to have an impact—not just from a public relations perspective, but also in terms of meeting the demands of Washington [...] this needs to be better developed, more comprehensive, and more in-depth, all presented at once. There must be a clear commitment that we are on a path to a significant and profound transition," concluded Saladrigas.
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