The Cuban regime signaled this Friday more explicitly than ever that it is willing to negotiate a settlement regarding the properties nationalized after the 1959 revolution, including those that belonged to Cubans who emigrated into exile.
The statement was made exclusively to The National by Carlos Méndez, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment.
"We are willing to seek an agreement, a solution that is satisfactory for all parties, considering both the foreign companies that were in Cuba and were nationalized, as well as looking for arrangements that can be acceptable for the Cubans who emigrated from the country at some point," stated Méndez.
The official also extended a direct invitation to the diaspora, noting that Cuba is open to Cuban residents abroad contributing "in different business models, in various sectors, and in different activities."
In the interview, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo," sent a direct message to Washington: "Cuba does not pose the slightest threat to the interests and national security of the United States. And in that sense, we continue to offer that civilized relationship, that relationship of respect and on equal terms."
Regarding the new economic model, Méndez was cautious in outlining the boundaries of the change: "We are not privatizing the economy; what we are doing is giving greater participation to the private sector in the economy, in practically all sectors."
The ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel had acknowledged that the plan is inspired by the models of China and Vietnam, that is, market reform without altering the one-party system.
The statement comes as part of the package of 176 economic reform measures presented to the National Assembly on June 18 and 19, regarded as the most significant attempt at structural reform since the Special Period, which explicitly includes the participation of Cubans abroad in the purchase of shares in state-owned enterprises.
Ahmed Faisal, a business consultant working with Cuban officials on economic opening, clarified the real scope of the offer: "If they have the necessary capital to implement it, they are willing to return full ownership."
According to Faisal, those who do not have sufficient funds to restore their old properties would need external investors to take equity stakes, with the aim of injecting urgent capital into a collapsing economy.
However, the consulted experts agree that the opening is insufficient to meet Washington's demands.
Mario Braga, geopolitical analyst at RANE Network, warned that the restitution of properties would be just a starting point: "I believe it is perhaps a prerequisite, but we would also need to consider, among other things, that Cuba expels or withdraws the intelligence officers from Russia and China operating on the island."
Arturo López-Levy, a Cuban researcher at Georgia College, was more blunt in stating that the regime is not in a political position to offer full restitution, given that most of those properties have been destroyed, occupied by families, or turned into hotels and workplaces.
The professor Helen Yaffe from the University of Glasgow brought up the human dimension of the problem: "Their mansions have been converted into homes, apartments, schools, offices, and research centers."
Imagine if [the Cuban government] said: 'OK, yes, you can come back and reclaim your property.' What would happen to thousands of Cuban families who have made their homes or workplaces there?
Yaffe also recalled that the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 legally renders any partial concession insufficient, as it conditions the lifting of the embargo on a democratic transition and a capitalist market economy.
The political backdrop complicates any agreement even further. The U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission has certified 5,913 claims from American citizens and companies for confiscated properties, with an estimated value exceeding 9 billion dollars with interest, and it is estimated that Cuban Americans could file up to 200,000 additional claims under Title III of Helms-Burton.
López-Levy was straightforward about the true intentions of the hardest sector of the Cuban-American exile community: "They don’t just want a type of agreement or a national reconciliation that addresses properties."
They are now eager to regain power in Havana," noting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio —a Cuban American— will not change his stance on partial concessions.
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