Miguel Díaz-Canel openly acknowledged that expanding the private sector in Cuba is "a concession" and not a socialist ideal, but he assured that the Communist Party and the people will prevent any "capitalist restoration" on the Island, in an interview granted to Folha de S.Paulo in Havana.
The statement is the most explicit acknowledgment by the ruler regarding the nature of the ongoing economic reforms, approved in June under the largest package of measures since the Special Period.
In response to Brazilian journalist Mônica Bergamo's question about whether Cuba is applying "capitalist reforms to save socialism," Díaz-Canel rejected the premise and asserted that capitalism is not being restored. However, he immediately acknowledged the contradiction: "Expanding a private sector is not an ideal of socialism. It is a concession. But in the transitional period, this exists; in the transitional period, market relations exist."
The ruler sought to allay fears of a systemic shift with three arguments: the existence of a Communist Party that "holds the control," the unity of the majority of the people around that Party, and popular participation. "These three elements guarantee that we are not heading toward a process of capitalist restoration," he affirmed.
To those guarantees, he added a popular one: "The people would not allow a process of capitalist restoration in Cuba, because the people know what the revolution has meant in terms of benefits."
To justify the concessions, he referred to Fidel Castro, who in the 1990s stated that "principles cannot be negotiated, principles cannot be changed, but there are times when concessions must be made in order to protect those principles."
The statements come in the context of Cuba's worst energy crisis in decades. Díaz-Canel himself disclosed that in the past seven months, only one oil tanker has entered the country—a Russian humanitarian aid shipment of 100,000 tons of crude—when the Island requires seven fuel ships each month.
This shortage has rendered 1,400 MW of distributed generation capacity unusable, resulting in blackouts lasting more than 20, 30, and even 40 consecutive hours. The generation deficit exceeded 2,411 MW at the beginning of August, a historic record.
The 176 economic measures approved in June include private banking, private exchange houses, removal of the 100-worker limit for small and medium-sized enterprises, and openness to investment from Cubans living abroad. The regime insists that these are the result of an internal debate within the party lasting over ten years, not concessions to Washington.
Social unrest, however, is on the rise. The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,415 protests, complaints, and critical expressions in July 2026, a monthly historical record, including 72 in-person protests. Díaz-Canel attributed those mobilizations to U.S. funding and labeled them as "vandalistic acts."
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