Miguel Díaz-Canel defended the package of economic transformations announced by the Cuban regime as a necessary opening to stimulate production and create wealth, but made it clear that all the measures will remain under the control of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
During an interview with RT en Español, the leader emphasized that the reforms do not signify a transition to capitalism, despite involving greater participation from private actors, foreign investment, market mechanisms, and even private banking solutions.
According to Díaz-Canel, the main guarantee that Cuba will not abandon socialism lies precisely in that the process will remain subordinate to the leadership of the PCC.
The transformations will also be under control, under the direction of the Communist Party of Cuba, he stated.
The leader stated that this political guidance, along with what is referred to as popular participation, will allow the reforms to maintain a “foundation of unity” and will not disrupt the principles of the system.
The statement clearly outlines the model that the regime intends to promote: a partial liberalization of the economy, but without changes to the political monopoly held by the Communist Party.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged that Cuba needs to "unleash productive forces," produce more, and create wealth in order to sustain the state's social programs.
"We cannot maintain the work of social justice of the revolution, not only to sustain it but to perfect and expand it, if we do not produce, if we do not create wealth," he admitted.
At another point in the interview, he defended the involvement of state, cooperative, and private economic actors in the so-called process of socialist construction.
He also justified the possible entry of private entities into the financial sector, although he denied that the government intends to privatize the banking system.
A private bank does not mean that the banking system will be privatized, it means that all economic actors will participate, he explained.
The leader presented these measures as pragmatic responses to the crisis and the State's inability to control certain economic flows, including remittances and the informal currency market.
However, he did not mention the possibility of accompanying economic openness with political reforms, party pluralism, free elections, or an expansion of civil liberties.
On the contrary, it reaffirmed that the leadership of the Communist Party will be the guarantee of the continuity of the system.
The approach is reminiscent of the models implemented in China and Vietnam, where a broad expansion of the market and private enterprise was allowed while the ruling party maintained political control.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged that the Cuban regime has studied the experiences of both countries and maintains regular exchanges with their respective communist parties.
Nonetheless, he assured that Havana does not intend to copy those models. “We are building our own model,” he stated. The leader summarized this idea with a formula of long-standing tradition in the official discourse: “Neither replica nor copy, heroic creation.”
He also defended the possibility of building socialism "as we Cubans say," with its own characteristics and adapted to the conditions of the country.
The interview reveals that the regime seeks to introduce mechanisms associated with a market economy without questioning the hegemony of the PCC.
In practice, the government aims to allow greater space for private capital, foreign investment, and commercial relations, while keeping the structure of the single-party political system intact.
Díaz-Canel even went so far as to present party control as an essential condition to prevent economic transformations from leading to capitalism.
The proposal positions the Communist Party as the arbiter, overseer, and political beneficiary of a process that, according to its own First Secretary, will entail risks, contradictions, and measures that may not succeed.
The leader acknowledged that some previous reforms were poorly designed or implemented and failed to address the structural problems of the Cuban economy.
He also admitted that many of the new transformations were postponed for years, despite having been discussed at the recent Congresses of the Communist Party.
Even so, the ruler once again presented the PCC, the same organization that has led the economy for more than six decades, as the institution responsible for ensuring the success of the new program.
The economic package thus appears as an attempt to flexibly adapt the productive model without altering the power structure: a market in the economy, but continuity of the single party in politics.
The regime's gamble is not to relinquish control, but rather to use capitalist mechanisms under communist oversight to try to sustain a system that continues to undergo one of the deepest economic, energy, and social crises in its recent history.
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