The economic shift undertaken by the Cuban regime is beginning to raise tensions within its own ranks.
Communist militants, youth leaders, and intellectuals connected to the establishment are questioning reforms that expand the space for the market and private capital, while Miguel Díaz-Canel insists that Cuba is not renouncing socialism.
One of the most forceful criticisms comes from Punto y Aparte, an alternative digital media outlet on the left, made up of members of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and the Union of Young Communists (UJC).
In its editorial Nothing will be the same after the silence, the publication warns that some of the reforms "imply the country's return to a pure and unbridled capitalist regime" and accentuate inequalities.
Punto y Aparte goes further and considers certain measures an "act of surrender of the Cuban Revolution to the interests of the new bourgeoisie of the country and international financial capital".
The significance of these criticisms lies precisely in their source. They do not come from the opposition or from exile, but from sectors that openly advocate for socialism and fear that it is the leadership itself that is dismantling some of its economic pillars.
The package of 176 measures approved by the regime expands business autonomy and the role of the private sector, includes the transformation of state enterprises into commercial companies with participation from both national and foreign private capital, and removes restrictions for small and medium-sized enterprises, among other changes.
Díaz-Canel has assured that the reforms are "not for more capitalism", although he acknowledged in an interview with the Puerto Rican media Claridad that there are "divided opinions" within the PCC and that the measures have "contradictions" and "risks," as reported by 14ymedio.
Reservations also extend to young leaders. Alejandro Sánchez, secretary of the UJC at the University of Havana, questioned who will be the true beneficiaries of the changes. "If the answer is 'everyone,' that would be false," he wrote, while calling for greater participation and popular oversight.
This is complemented by a document from communist militants that the agency EFE had access to, warning that some reforms "far exceed" what has historically been deemed acceptable within Cuban socialism.
The Crab and the Fear of a New Elite
The economic debate coincides with another source of discontent: the prominent role taken by Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, El Cangrejo, the grandson of Raúl Castro, despite not holding any known public position.
His role as a negotiator in contacts with the United States and the privileges associated with the descendants of the elite have sparked criticism even among official figures.
Michel Torres Corona, host of the state program Con Filo, publicly questioned the role of Rodríguez Castro and denounced the privileges of the descendants of the elite, asking, "What justifies their impunity?"
Critics reveal an increasingly difficult contradiction to hide. After six decades during which the regime limited private property and portrayed wealth accumulation as an undesirable consequence of capitalism, it now needs private capital, foreign investment, and market mechanisms to try to revive the economy.
The fear expressed from within its own left is that the outcome will not simply be an economic opening, but the birth of a new privileged class connected to power, while the majority of Cubans continue to endure the crisis.
Related videos:
Filed under: