The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged this Monday that the decriminalization of foreign currency during the Special Period of the 90s "began to create social inequalities" in Cuba, and recalled those decisions as a precedent while defending the economic transformations currently undertaken by the regime.
The statements were made during an interview granted to the Russian state media RT en Español, conducted by Cuban journalist Oliver Zamora.
Zamora asked the president if it pains him to make decisions that might deepen inequality, as he recalled Fidel Castro had to do when he accepted exceptional economic measures during the crisis of the 1990s.
Of course it hurts, first because it goes against the concepts that one has forged and educated oneself in,” replied Díaz-Canel.
To justify the current transformations, the leader invoked the figure of Castro and the measures taken during the Special Period, when Cuba lost the economic support of the Soviet Union and had to open up to foreign capital, tourism, and foreign currency.
According to Díaz-Canel, Castro "unreservedly acknowledged how painful it was" to accept what he described as "practices typical of capitalism" and maintained that, "above all," was the need to "save the revolution".
The president recalled that one of those decisions was to allow the circulation of foreign currency once again.
"In that moment, the currency was decriminalized and that decriminalization of the currency began to create social inequalities," he admitted.
Díaz-Canel also listed the negative effects that, according to him, accompanied the economic opening of the 1990s: the gap between those who received remittances and those who did not, the influx of drugs with the development of tourism, and the proliferation of prostitution.
Regarding this last phenomenon, he stated that it was "very painful" for the regime due to the process of women's emancipation officially promoted by the revolution.
The leader also acknowledged that some people began to differentiate themselves economically not by their work, but by having access to remittances or other sources of income.
There was a group of people who began to stand out not for what they contributed to society through their work, but because they had the means to receive remittances or had something else, he pointed out.
In light of the risk that the new measures may further deepen social inequalities, Díaz-Canel stated that "the art of politics" lies in finding "compensatory mechanisms to prevent the gaps of inequality from widening and to ensure that the just principles of socialism do not fade away."
In another part of the interview, the leader described the severity of the energy crisis and stated that "for the past six months, no fuel ships have arrived, only one Russian ship arrived for humanitarian aid."
In referring to the Special Period to explain his current stance, Díaz-Canel presented those reforms as a precedent for decisions he deems contradictory and painful, yet necessary to preserve the system.
"This is a creation, this is a creative process of resistance. And in that sense, I am confident that we will achieve it," he concluded.
The statements come after the regime approved a package of 176 economic and social transformations in June 2026, ratified by the National Assembly on June 19.
The measures include the participation of private capital in banking, the establishment of private exchange houses, and a greater openness to foreign investment, including in small and medium-sized enterprises.
The government argues that these changes do not represent a shift towards capitalism, even though they break with historical prohibitions of the Cuban economic model and revive mechanisms similar to those used during the Special Period.
Filed under: