The statements made by the Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío regarding the profound economic transformations that the Cuban government is preparing have sparked a wave of reactions among readers of CiberCuba on Facebook, where skepticism about the potential outcomes of the measures is predominant.
Fernández de Cossío acknowledged in an interview with the American program Breaking Points that the authorities do not know what the outcome of the changes will be, although they deem it essential to take action regarding the current situation.
«We don’t know what the outcome will be, but we need to do something to change the current reality», the diplomat stated.
The statements, reported by CiberCuba, generated hundreds of comments on Facebook. Among the reactions are criticisms of the economic management of recent decades, doubts about the ability of the new measures to improve daily life, and also concern about the social consequences of greater market openness.
The outcome is already known. 67 years of reforming. More misery and more misery. Those who cause the problem are not the ones who will fix it, wrote a reader.
Another comment summarized the skepticism much more succinctly: "It's very simple: no results."
The Vice Minister's reference to uncertainty also prompted several users to recall previous economic reform processes undertaken by the Cuban authorities.
"Since 1959, they have been living with the same uncertainty, almost 70 years of uncertainty, reforms and more reforms, processes of rectification, expulsion of leaders, and so on, while the country becomes increasingly destroyed and mired in misery," noted one of the comments.
In a similar vein, another user noted that the experience accumulated over decades allows them to anticipate, from their perspective, the outcome of the new measures: "Perhaps you don't, but with 67 years of experience and results seen by the Cuban people, it will be another failure".
Another reader linked their concerns to issues like debt and Cuba's difficulties in obtaining financing: «Without international credit, debts, and without radical political change, the result will be the same as it has been for more than 67 years: failure».
Not all reactions were limited to questioning the effectiveness of the reforms. Some users focused their concerns on the consequences of expanding the market and private initiative in a country marked by low wages, inflation, and significant disparities in access to foreign currency.
One of the comments compared the current situation to the crisis of the 1990s—referred to by the regime as the Special Period—and warned of the risk that the benefits of greater economic openness may be concentrated in a portion of the population.
“Remember the experience of the 1990s when the special period began, hitting the Cuban people very hard. Today, history is repeating itself, but from a different angle, moving towards capitalism, which is very beneficial for a few citizens and terrible for the majority who struggle every day to survive,” expressed a reader.
Another comment was even more pessimistic and asserted that the measures could "further plunge the country into misery".
There were also those who highlighted a possible contradiction between the socialist discourse upheld for decades and the increasing incorporation of market mechanisms. A reader questioned that, after years of rejecting capitalism, the authorities now resort to tools typical of a market economy to try to revitalize the country.
From another perspective, a user pointed out that a greater market presence could translate into more difficulties for those lacking sufficient income. “If you don't have money, right now you won’t be able to buy anything,” he wrote, referring to the potential effects of the changes.
The reactions come after Fernández de Cossío described the ongoing process as the most profound social and economic transformation experienced by Cuba since the 1960s.
The measures announced by the authorities include increased space for the private sector, greater flexibility for micro, small, and medium enterprises (mipymes), new opportunities for foreign investment linked to the non-state sector, and financial and exchange mechanisms with private participation.
The leader Miguel Díaz-Canel has insisted, however, that the process will continue under the guidance of the Communist Party of Cuba and has rejected the notion that the measures signify a transition to a capitalist system.
The uncertainty acknowledged by Fernández de Cossío seems to be one of the elements that has drawn the most attention from readers.
For many of those who reacted to the posts from CiberCuba, the issue doesn't solely lie in knowing what the new measures will be, but rather in whether these will yield different results compared to previous cycles of reforms.
The result is already known, one of them insisted. Another was even more emphatic: No result whatsoever.
The opinions gathered on Facebook represent the ratings of users who participated in those posts and do not, by themselves, constitute a representative sample of public opinion in Cuba.
They do reflect, however, the intense debate generated on the networks of CiberCuba regarding economic changes that the government itself describes as profound and whose outcome, as Fernández de Cossío acknowledged, is still unknown.
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