Cuban-American entrepreneur Iván Herrera, founder and CEO of Univista Insurance, published a video on Friday in which he harshly rejects the 176 economic measures announced by the Cuban regime on Thursday, June 18, deeming them late, inadequate, and forcibly implemented under pressure from Washington. He also warned that as long as the communists remain in power, he will not invest a single cent in Cuba.
"I believe these measures come too late. It is a lack of respect. It is outrageous that at this stage they are implementing these measures that are not voluntary at all. They are compelled by the pressure that our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and President Donald Trump, are exerting on the leadership of the Cuban dictatorship," Herrera stated in the video.
The businessman, born in Alquízar, Artemisa, in 1973, lamented that the regime hadn't made these decisions decades ago. "How wonderful it would have been if they had done this 30 years ago. I wouldn't have had to emigrate. We would have avoided many deaths."
Herrera highlighted in the video the historic opportunities that the regime wasted for reform: the exoduses of Camarioca and Mariel, the death of Fidel Castro, and the protests of July 11, 2021, when the dictatorship chose repression over openness. “They chose to give it to the Chinese, they chose exploitation, they chose to mistreat that people, humiliating them; they created the UMAP, they did everything they did,” he denounced.
In response to any call to invest in the island, the businessman was unequivocal: "At least for me, as long as you are there, I will not put a dime of my investment there. It doesn't matter who speaks to me, it doesn't matter how you want to clean it up."
Herrera additionally accused the regime's leaders of having "their hands, their bodies, their feet, their faces smeared with the blood of the Cuban people" and demanded that they leave power: "Get out of there," he told them directly.
Instead of seeking external capital or funds from the diaspora, the entrepreneur proposed that the regime hand power directly to those who work the land. "People my age, the farmers from my area, from Alquízar, from Güira, from San Antonio de los Baños, want to plow their land but can't because of you," he stated.
Herrera also reported that the regime has its own resources that it does not use for the people. "Those people who are there should take the 18 billion, those that were discovered, because you have more than 500 billion dollars scattered in the banks. Go to where those peasants are and hand over the power to them."
Herrera's rejection of the measures comes at a time of deep skepticism. Following the announcement of the reform package —the largest since the Special Period, which includes for the first time since 1959 the authorization of private banking and exchange houses— the informal market responded with an additional depreciation of the peso: the dollar surged to 690 CUP this Friday.
This is not the first time Herrera has taken this stance. In March 2026, he had already stated that there will be no business investment in Cuba until Cubans are free, and that same month he traveled to Washington to seek support from the Trump administration before Congress.
The businessman closed his message with a warning to the regime and a promise to the Cuban people: "Now comes freedom for Cuba, and it will come soon, because you don’t know how to produce. You know how to steal what others produce. Get out of there and let us take over, so you can see a happy people, a prosperous people, and a people with education, with schools, with hospitals, where there is everything," he concluded.
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