Miguel Díaz-Canel made it clear once again that the economic opening initiated by the Cuban regime will not be accompanied by a political opening: there will be more market, a greater role for private enterprise, and new forms of ownership and management, but the Communist Party intends to maintain the monopoly on power and direct the process.
In a speech before representatives of communist and workers' parties, the leader dedicated several passages to explaining the political limits of the ongoing economic transformations.
"I know that the topic of economic and social transformations was the subject of information and debate. However, I want to emphasize key concepts: it is a process to energize the economy, not to establish capitalism," he stated.
Díaz-Canel added that "there will be no extreme privatization" and that "the essential means of production remain in the hands of the people".
The choice of words is significant. The leader did not say that there will be no privatization, but rather that there will be no privatization "at all costs," while his government attempts to lift the Cuban economy out of a deep crisis through 176 measures that considerably expand the space that has been reserved for decades for the market and private capital.
Among the announced reforms are characteristic instruments of market economies, such as joint-stock companies, greater business autonomy, foreign investment linked to the non-state sector, private banks and exchange houses, and new mechanisms for the formation of prices, wages, and relationships among various economic actors.
The regime rejects, however, that this shift could be interpreted as a renunciation of socialism.
Market yes; political alternation, no
If the economic reforms open doors that remained closed for decades due to being deemed incompatible with the Cuban socialist model, Díaz-Canel made it clear that there is another door the regime does not intend to open: that of political pluralism.
The Party will continue as a vigilant guardian of the people's interests, of the working class, of social achievements, and of the social justice that has driven the Revolution since its inception, he affirmed.
And it was even more explicit:
“It is neither an elites' party nor a lobbyist one. Its role as a single Party imposes on it the need to become increasingly democratic and representative [...] without ever losing sight of the people, the Revolution, and socialism.”
The contradiction is at the heart of the new Cuban economic experiment.
The regime seems willing to accept more institutions associated with capitalism when it needs them to generate wealth, attract capital, or manage activities that the State has been unable to sustain efficiently. But that flexibility ends where political power begins.
There will be no competition between parties. There will be no alternation between government projects. And the Communist Party will continue to claim the status of "guardian" of the interests of a society that cannot freely choose another political force to govern it.
Díaz-Canel even goes so far as to present the political monopoly as a democratic requirement: according to his reasoning, precisely because the PCC is the only party, it must be "increasingly democratic and representative".
But a party that does not need to compete with any other also does not have to subject its program to the real possibility of being ousted from power by the voters.
Private capital to "build socialism"
Another fragment of the speech reveals the extent of the paradox. Díaz-Canel explicitly acknowledged that Cuba's economic future includes state-owned and private enterprises operating simultaneously.
"Doing this will be the task of everyone, both the state and non-state enterprises, alongside other forms of economic management that together make up the Cuban business framework," he said.
But he immediately set the political objective to which, in his view, all those actors should be subordinated: "Focused on a single goal: to build the prosperous and sustainable socialism that the heroic Cuban people deserve".
Díaz-Canel reiterated this subordination by describing the economic transformation as a politically directed "updating" by the PCC.
"The response of the people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba, has been firm and creative resistance, unity, the defense of their achievements, and the updating of their economic and social model, without ever renouncing the principles of socialism and without yielding to pressures or blackmail." he stated.
The keywords are hard to miss: "under the leadership of the Communist Party".
An economic shift so that nothing changes in power
The 176 measures represent one of the clearest acknowledgments that the centralized economic model needs mechanisms that the official discourse has demonized for decades.
The government needs investment, private capital, business autonomy, economic incentives, and market mechanisms. However, it seeks to incorporate these elements without accepting the political consequence it fears the most: losing control over the process.
This model has precedents in other communist regimes that opened wide spaces for the market and private capital without allowing for an equivalent democratization of the political system. The Cuban regime now seems to be searching for its own formula: to leverage capitalist mechanisms to attempt to rescue the economy while maintaining the political structure that guarantees the monopoly of the Communist Party.
Díaz-Canel does not hide this intention. On the contrary, he states it openly: economic transformation "under the leadership of the Communist Party," recognition of both state and non-state enterprises, rejection of "establishing capitalism" and explicit defense of the "role of the single Party."
After decades of presenting the market, private property, and capitalism as threats to the revolutionary achievements, the regime now needs a good portion of its mechanisms to try to emerge from the crisis.
The only thing that, according to Díaz-Canel's discourse, remains non-negotiable is power.
The market may open up. Private capital may grow. Economic rules may change. But the Communist Party intends to remain the only authority allowed to decide to what extent, how, and for what purpose.
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