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The Cuban researcher and essayist Hilda Landrove published an analysis on Facebook in which she dismantles the new package of economic reforms announced that same day by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, describing them as empty promises that arrive, much like in the song by Joaquín Sabina, "badly and late."
The text by Landrove, based in Mexico and holding a PhD in Mesoamerican Studies from UNAM, directly responds to Díaz-Canel's announcement of an Economic and Social Program for 2026 that includes six major axes: economic management system, municipal autonomy, business autonomy, agricultural recovery, foreign trade, and foreign investment.
Among the most notable measures in the package is the possibility for municipalities to import and export directly without intermediaries, for state-owned enterprises to retain foreign currency and operate with greater autonomy, for the approval of MIPYMES whose applications had been stalled for months, and for Cuban emigrants to even manage hotels.
But for Landrove, none of those announcements change the underlying diagnosis: "The system is not reformable. It is not reformable because there is no economy without politics, and there is no intention to restore autonomy and rights to Cuban society."
The researcher describes a historical pattern that, in her opinion, repeats itself unchanged: “Here they go again, changing everything that sounds like change in order to change nothing.” She adds that “we have literally spent our lives listening to the thousands of versions of 'now we are really going to build socialism' or anything else they have thought to build or rebuild.”
That accumulation of unfulfilled promises is what gives its most striking image its title: “When they talk about building, all we hear is the noise of the soundtrack of endless destruction.”
Landrove's skepticism is shared by other analysts. Manuel Cuesta Morúa described them as "delayed Chinese reforms", while Carlos Saladrigas warned that without political changes, there will be no serious investment and that the laws will remain "worthless." Julio Aliaga Pesant also pointed out that the announcement lacks sufficient legal basis, as it was presented before its formal approval by the Political Bureau and the National Assembly, scheduled for July.
The context in which these reforms are introduced is the worst economic crisis since the Special Period. Cuba is projected to experience a GDP contraction of 7.2% in 2026, with a cumulative decline of nearly 23% since 2019. Electricity deficits exceed 2,150 MW, with outages in some areas lasting more than 30 to 40 consecutive hours, and Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged that in the past five months only one oil tanker had arrived in Cuba.
This reality is compounded by the fact that approximately 2.7 million people lack regular access to potable water and that the year-on-year inflation reached 13.42% in March 2026. The number of MIPYMES, which had exceeded 11,300, recorded its first decrease in 2025, indicating the deterioration of the environment for private businesses.
Landrove has a recent history of critical analysis regarding the regime's discourse. Last May, it described the May 1st march as “more akin to the staging of a corpse” than a genuine display of revolutionary fervor. His voice critically evaluates with skepticism from the Special Period of the 1990s, through the guidelines set by Raúl Castro starting in 2008, to the monetary “Ordering” of 2021, which unleashed rampant inflation without transforming the State's political-economic control structure.
The academic closed her publication with a phrase that encapsulates the accumulated exhaustion of generations: "Of course, there will be headlines announcing that this time it will really happen, but we are already so tired of those."
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