Amelia Calzadilla, president of the Cuban Classic Liberal Party (PLCC), pointed out in an interview with Tania Costa, on CiberCuba, that Miguel Díaz-Canel contradicted the official stance of his own administration by acknowledging to a foreign media outlet that the sanctions from the United States accelerated the economic reforms he announced on June 12.
Calzadilla emphasizes that while the officialist deputy Yusuam Palacios stated in the National Assembly of People's Power that the 176 measures approved on June 18 "have nothing to do with the intransigence of the United States or with the measures being applied to us" and that they respond to "pure patriotic will," Díaz-Canel acknowledged to the Cuban journalist Roberto Cavada that the "tightened blockade" contributed to "accelerating" the decisions.
"This is not about your incompetence. It's about the fact that you have deliberately forced me to live in extreme misery while having the solution in your hands," Calzadilla asserted.
The Cuban government emphasized that the regime had been analyzing these reforms since the guidelines of 2011, fifteen years ago, and they were only implemented in 2026 under external pressure.
"Look, on one hand, it is deeply painful that you know what the solution to the problem is and that you file it away while you exert pressure on a people," he added.
During those 15 years of deliberate paralysis, the situation of Cubans deteriorated to critical levels. According to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, 89% of the population lives in extreme poverty, with daily incomes of less than 1.90 dollars.
For Calzadilla, the explanation for that delay lies in the fact that "while you have been able to live off communism, we have had to live with communism, you have taken advantage."
The president of the PLCC also warned that the reforms do not guarantee permanence, as the regime will roll them back as soon as they threaten its control: "As soon as they see that any of these measures jeopardizes their position of power, they would be willing to withdraw them."
In this regard, Calzadilla supported Washington's stance of not accepting superficial concessions. "I can only thank the United States for not being satisfied with aesthetic changes, for having Marco Rubio stating directly: we know that the problem in Cuba is political."
The activist also dismissed the idea that the regime is the right actor to lead any economic recovery, arguing that "the trust and credibility that the dictatorship has lost over all these years of repression and human rights violations make any form of both national and foreign investment practically impossible, because no one believes in them."
The U.S. State Department described the 176 measures as "superficial smoke signals from the regime" that "arrive with a significant delay," in line with Calzadilla's analysis.
The opposition member concluded that the uncertainty lies not in whether the regime will fall, but in when it will. "I don’t believe that these measures are unrelated to all the pressure that the United States has been exerting," she stated, leaving open the question of when the definitive transformation will occur.
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