The Cuban writer, journalist, and researcher Leonardo Depestre Catony published this Sunday on his Facebook profile a lengthy critical reflection in which he demands public transparency regarding the identity and source of the fortunes of those he refers to as "millionaire compatriots of socialism": citizens residing in Cuba who have accumulated great wealth within a system that the Constitution itself defines as socialist.
Depestre Catony, born in Remedios, Villa Clara, in 1953, is a member of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, has collaborated with various media outlets, and is the author of several books. His publication draws an uncomfortable parallel between two eras: before 1959, the Cuban press publicly identified the major capitalist owners; today, that transparency has disappeared for the new beneficiaries of the system.
"Before 1959, the names and surnames of Cuba's great millionaires were well-known, along with their properties and roughly the amounts of their fortunes. The press revealed everything. They were 'the exploiters of the capitalist system.' Now, we only hear about the fortunes of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and other executives (information that is of no value to us), but they never inform us about the vast fortunes of the new millionaire Cubans of socialism living on the island, who are a handful, and whose matters concern and affect us," the author wrote.
The demand is clear: "We want to know their names and surnames, approximately how much their fortunes amount to, and, above all, how they acquired them, because it wasn't through work, as they have almost certainly never worked."
Depestre Catony describes the lifestyle of that opaque elite: "They live in luxurious mansions, drive expensive cars, dine in the priciest small and medium-sized enterprises (by the way, whose are these enterprises truly, deep down?), then they either pay the bill or not, leave, and even take a little spin in private jets over Varadero or some other paradise."
The question regarding the true owners of the most profitable MiPYMES is not rhetorical. Journalistic reports have documented that part of the business ecosystem that emerged after the legalization of these entities in 2021 is controlled by elites connected to the state's or military's apparatus within the regime.
According to internal financial documents from GAESA for 2024, obtained and subsequently analyzed by the Miami Herald, the military conglomerate reported in March of that year about $17.894 billion in current assets denominated in foreign currency. Of this amount, approximately $14.467 billion were deposited in bank accounts or in financial institutions controlled by the group itself.
The writer appeals to popular sovereignty as the foundation of the right to know: "Let us not forget that the true sovereign is not the government of a nation; the real sovereign is the people. And that people want and have the right to know who 'the new exploiters under socialism' are, because the vast majority, I repeat, the vast majority of this people lives in poverty, in misery, and even in destitution."
This description aligns with data regarding the reality in Cuba. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) and the Cuba Social Rights Observatory estimated in a 2026 report that extreme poverty affects 94% of the residents on the Island. Furthermore, analysts estimate that inequality in the country has deepened steadily.
Even Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged in July 2026 that the legalization of the dollar in the 1990s created social inequalities, and that same month he admitted to having a "fear of the growth of private capital" on the Island. The president has reiterated that the new 176 measures of the government's economic package —which are clearly capitalist in nature— are "to defend and advance in the construction of socialism."
Depestre Catony leaves no room for ambiguity: "Whoever possesses that information and does not share it is simply an accomplice." He concludes with a statement that strikes like a fist: "Enough already of the abuse towards the people."
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