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A reflection published on Facebook by the user Roy Perez, with text signed by José Luís Pérez Parra, has struck a chord with Cubans both on the Island and abroad with a question that the regime cannot answer: "If this was the right thing to do, why were we forced to wait a lifetime to acknowledge it?"
The trigger is the package of 176 economic transformations that the government presented on June 18 and 19 before the National Assembly, introduced by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz as the most significant attempt at structural reform since the Special Period of the 1990s.
The measures now authorize what has been prohibited or severely limited for decades: operating larger businesses, forming partnerships, making investments, hiring an unlimited number of workers, owning multiple companies, trading with foreign markets, establishing private currency exchange offices, and even purchasing shares of state-owned companies.
"And then we remember that when we had youth, strength, talent, discipline, and the desire to move forward, many of those things were forbidden or severely limited," writes the author of the text.
"We think about the projects that never came to life, about the opportunities we let slip away, about the years that passed waiting for permits, changes, or openings that never arrived," he laments.
The publication does not talk about economic mistakes, but rather about something irreparable.
"We're talking about lives. About entire generations that were told it was impossible, only to ultimately recognize decades later that it was indeed possible. About men and women who didn't fail because they lacked talent or will, but because someone decided for them how far they could go," the text states.
That is precisely the wound that the 176 measures cannot heal: time. "No one can give a people back the years that were taken from them. No one can return youth to a generation," he concludes.
The historical pattern highlighted by the reflection is documentable.
During the Special Period of the 90s, Cuba's GDP fell by 35%, and the government legalized self-employment in 1993 as an emergency measure, only to restrict it once the Venezuelan subsidy stabilized the economy.
In 2010, Raúl Castro once again expanded some freedoms, but with strict limits: a cap of 100 workers, only one business per person, and prohibited sectors. Now, in 2026, amidst the worst crisis in decades, the regime is lifting almost all those restrictions at once.
The crisis that compels the opening is devastating. 89% of the population lives in extreme poverty, food production has dropped by 67% in five years, and more than 850,000 Cubans have left the Island since 2022, 77% of whom are young people between the ages of 15 and 49.
The basic cost of living exceeds 96,000 pesos per month, while the official minimum wage is 3,210 pesos.
Miguel Díaz-Canel has defended the reforms, insisting that they do not respond to external pressures. "Trump does not rule Cuba, nor does the U.S. government rule Cuba. Cuba is sovereign," he declared.
In front of the XXII Congress of the Central Workers' Organization of Cuba, last Friday, he added: «It had to be done to save the Revolution, to continue the socialist construction».
Critical reading is unanimous among those who do not rely on the regime for their opinions.
The economist Pedro Monreal describes the measures as “delayed pragmatism” and warns that the contraction of GDP could reach 15% in 2026. The opposition figure Manuel Cuesta Morúa summarized them in three words: “delayed Chinese reforms.”
The U.S. State Department described them as "superficial smoke signals".
Díaz-Canel promised that the reforms will allow Cuban youths to "build their life project in Cuba" without the need to emigrate. It is the same promise that the regime has failed to fulfill for decades, now made to a generation that has mostly already decided to leave.
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