An academic linked to the University of Havana acknowledged on state television that the package of 176 economic reforms approved by the Cuban regime on June 18, 2026, will deepen social inequalities on the island, in an unusually candid admission for a system official.
Rafael Montejo, director of the Center for Management Techniques Studies at the University of Havana, made the statement during the official program "Balancing the Box", where he participated alongside Ian Pedro Carbonell Karell, director of macroeconomic policies at the Central Bank of Cuba, and Carlos Miguel Pérez Reyes, deputy and president of the Mipymes and Management Forms commission.
"These measures will also lead to inequalities, and we need to address those inequalities; we must identify them [...] there will be individuals who will have access to money and will become wealthy in some way, while others will obviously not be able to participate in the same manner. Therefore, those inequalities will exist, and they may grow," Montejo stated.
Deputy Pérez Reyes was even more emphatic in stating that the social gap is not a future consequence but a present reality: "We already have inequalities. We don't have to wait to implement these measures to have inequalities; they are already there."
The figures support this interpretation. The Cuban Gini coefficient increased from 0.25 in 1989 to between 0.4 and 0.5 today, according to data acknowledged by the government itself. For the first time since the 1960s, the private sector surpasses the state sector in retail sales, accounting for 55% of the total in 2024.
The 176 measures approved in an extraordinary session by the National Assembly include the removal of the limit of 100 workers for private companies, the authorization of private banking and non-state currency exchange houses, the opening to direct foreign investment in the private sector, and the restriction of the subsidized basic basket only for retirees and vulnerable individuals, eliminating the universal subsidy that has been in place since 1962.
Montejo did not shy away from the contradictions of the process: "One cannot make a radical adjustment in the way the economy is managed without expecting that it will have certain social consequences; it will have them, and we must anticipate them."
Regarding the complexity of the implementation, he warned that "there are no magic wands in economics" and that the fundamental risk is precisely in executing the changes.
Pérez Reyes added that the reform requires transforming 81 higher-ranking regulations and thousands of normative clauses, amid what he described as "a great American pressure on the Cuban economy."
The Central Bank official, Carbonel Carel, defended the abandonment of universal egalitarianism by arguing that “for many years we protected everyone equally, and in that way, when there is a reduction in the material resources to do so, you end up protecting less those who need it the most.”
The context in which these statements are made is devastating. ECLAC projects a decline in Cuba's GDP of 6.5% in 2026 and a cumulative contraction of 10.3% for the two-year period of 2025-2026.
89% of Cuban families live in extreme poverty, blackouts last between 20 and 40 hours a day in some areas, and the year-on-year inflation rate was 13.42% in March 2026.
Despite everything, Montejo insisted that the ideological direction does not change: "I believe we will continue to build socialism; the only difference is that we will do it with different tools and instruments."
Pérez Reyes acknowledged that the reforms came too late: "We should have taken these initiatives a long time ago; we are finally doing so. It has been difficult, and consensus was hard to achieve. It is true that the context forced us to act more quickly than we would have liked."
Filed under: