Miguel Díaz-Canel categorically rejected that Cuba is implementing capitalist reforms to survive its worst crisis in decades, in an interview lasting almost an hour granted to Folha de S.Paulo, conducted by Brazilian journalist Mônica Bergamo, and published this Saturday.
When Bergamo directly pointed out the existence of private property, employers and employees, stores in dollars, and a growing social inequality, the Cuban leader responded bluntly: "There are no capitalist reforms. Let me explain."
Díaz-Canel argued that the ongoing transformations are “necessary concessions” within a process of socialist construction, not a restoration of capitalism, and that the Communist Party ensures that the process does not lead to a system change.
"These are necessary reforms to enhance socialist construction. For us, expanding the private sector is not an ideal of socialism. It is a concession," he stated.
To justify those concessions, the leader invoked Fidel Castro: "Principles are not negotiable, principles do not change, but there are moments when concessions must be made to protect those principles."
He also compared the current situation to the Special Period of the 1990s, when Cuba opened stores in foreign currencies and allowed foreign investment following the Soviet collapse, and presented the package of 176 economic measures —approved by the National Assembly on June 19 and driven by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz— as the result of an internal debate of over ten years within the party, rather than a concession to Washington.
Díaz-Canel attributed the Cuban crisis almost entirely to the U.S. embargo, which he described as "genocide" and "a crime," and revealed that in the last seven months, only one oil tanker has entered the country—a Russian humanitarian aid shipment of 100,000 tons of crude—when the island needs seven fuel tankers per month.
According to the leader, this shortage has rendered 100 MW of distributed generation capacity unusable, causing power outages to exceed 20, 30, and even 40 hours daily.
The electricity generation deficit exceeded 2,411 MW at the beginning of August, marking a historic record.
The ruler also presented figures on health impact: more than 64,000 children with outdated vaccination schedules, over 34,000 pregnant women without access to ultrasounds, childhood mortality doubled compared to the historical rate, a waiting list of more than 98,000 patients for surgeries —including 12,000 children— and only 30% of the basic medication supply available.
In response to Bergamo's question about the so-called "internal blockade"—a term commonly used among Cubans to refer to bureaucracy and poor governmental management—Díaz-Canel dismissed it.
"We listen, but that’s not the case." He acknowledged that there are "dissatisfactions with certain elements of bureaucracy and slowness," but insisted that the main cause of the crisis is the external embargo.
Regarding the dialogue with Washington, Díaz-Canel acknowledged that he is afraid of a U.S. military action and admitted that the communication channel with the Trump administration is "very stalled," although he stated that Cuban officials have held meetings with their counterparts in Washington without achieving concrete progress.
The leader also justified the repression of protests by stating that the United States "pays people to promote social demands in Cuba" that lead to "vandalistic acts."
Its version contrasts with the data from the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts, which recorded 1,415 protests, complaints, and critical expressions just in July 2026, the month with the highest number of recorded demonstrations in the recent history of the island.
Díaz-Canel indicated that he has approximately two years left in his presidential term and three at the helm of the Communist Party, and he concluded the interview with an optimistic statement: "We will overcome this moment, because justice is on our side."
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