The economist Elías Amor has a clear and direct response for those who blame small and medium-sized private businesses in Cuba for high prices and shortages. In his view, the Mipymes are not the problem; it is the communist regime that suffocates them.
In a recent interview with Tania Costa, Amor dismantled point by point the official narrative that seeks to blame the private sector for the price crisis in Cuba, a story that the state apparatus itself has promoted at various times to divert attention from the real causes.
“Mipymes are not evil, they are not devils, they are not bad people. Mipymes sell their products and provide their services at prices that allow them to cover costs and make a profit,” affirmed the economist.
Amor explained that these prices are not arbitrary or a result of greed, but rather the outcome of the fundamental logic of the market. To illustrate this, he referred to a recent example: the over 15% increase in the price of gasoline and diesel in Spain during the summer of 2026, attributed to the wartime situation in the Gulf and the reduction of Venezuelan oil supply. A temporary phenomenon, he emphasized, which the market corrects on its own.
"If there is high demand, the price will seem low; if there is not much demand and the product does not sell, the owner of the Mipyme will have to lower it. This is how the market economy works," he pointed out.
The problem, according to Amor, arises when a municipal communist leader decides to intervene. In response to complaints about the price of oil, this official does not wait for the market to self-regulate: he goes to the store and caps the prices, or imposes a centralized price through the so-called "cost bulletin."
"What are you doing with that? Ruining the Mipyme, forcing it to store all the merchandise, taking it out of distribution, and then you won't have either the oil or the products you need," the economist warned.
This destructive cycle is, for Amor, the essence of Cuba's economic failure. "Basically because in a process that is natural and spontaneous and can fix itself, the communist regime intervenes and ends up destroying it. That is the worst of what is happening in Cuba."
The pattern you describe is not theoretical. In August 2026, several municipal governments reimplanted local price ceilings for oil —Guantánamo, Pinar del Río, Villa Clara, Matanzas— creating exactly the shortage that the economist anticipated. The price of oil reached between 2,500 and 7,000 pesos per liter, depending on the province, in a context of official inflation of 20.70% year-on-year in July 2026, with Amor's projections around 30% for the end of the year.
Against this backdrop, the economist outlines an alternative vision. "What I would like is for the Cuban consumer to have an abundance of goods and services at good prices so that they can freely choose what they prefer." Butter, yogurt of various qualities, powdered milk, all paid for in national currency. "The problem is that the communist regime doesn't allow this. The communist regime forces them into actions that appear malicious, seem underhanded, as if their intention is to ruin people. That's not the case."
This interview takes place in the context of the meeting held on August 26, 2026, between the leadership of the Communist Party and representatives from the private sector, a gathering that Díaz-Canel acknowledged, marked by "prejudices and obstacles" against private entrepreneurs within the state structures themselves.
Amor described that meeting as a historic milestone and referred to it as "the first round, because that boxing match is going to continue, and in the end, one boxer will fall to the ground."
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