An anonymous listener issued the most uncomfortable warning during the premiere of “Criterio Compartido,” the new radio program by Miguel Díaz-Canel on Radio Rebelde: “In trying to preserve the gains of socialism, we could fall into the most ruthless and cruel capitalism. Be careful.”
The program, hosted alongside journalist Bárbara Betancourt under the motto "every voice in Cuba matters," was broadcast on Wednesday, September 23, and will air biweekly on alternating Wednesdays.
For 55 minutes, the ruler listened to complaints about prices, pensions, and bureaucracy, but his responses were focused on defending the 176 economic and social transformations approved by the National Assembly in June 2026 and attributing the crisis to the U.S. embargo.
Another listener was even more direct in the "vox populi" segment: "The economy is increasingly in the hands of the private sector. They speculate, hoard, evade taxes, determine prices, and raise prices without any justification".
Díaz-Canel responded emphatically: "There is no return to capitalism. These transformations are not a shift towards capitalism nor are they a process of capitalist restoration; they are the updating of our economic and social model in a socialist construction that must also be innovative."
It is not the first time that the leader has reiterated this position. Since the approval of the 176 measures, he has insisted that the reforms do not imply renouncing socialism, and in July he acknowledged his fear of the growth of private capital, although he emphasized that everything will remain under the control of the Communist Party.
To support its position, the program played a clip of the dictator Fidel Castro from the 90s in which the historical leader justified the introduction of market mechanisms during the Special Period: «We will necessarily introduce more elements of private property, capitalism, and the market. We must do it. But with the strength of the revolution, we should not fear that».
While the leader defended the model, the testimonies of the listeners painted a very different reality.
Pedro Rodríguez Martínez, a resident of Contramaestre in Santiago de Cuba, reported that the price of oil ranges between 3,600 and 5,000 pesos and that «salaries and pensions are not enough to live on». Juana Pérez, an 88-year-old retiree from Havana with a pension of 2,000 pesos, requested that measures take into account elderly individuals; Díaz-Canel spoke of differentiated subsidies but did not specify amounts or timelines.
The ruler himself read data from his "dashboard" confirming the seriousness of the situation: an energy deficit of over 2,020 megawatts, more than 3.6 million people affected by water issues, 890 out of 1,600 bakeries unable to produce bread due to a lack of flour, and urban transportation operating at 1.6% across the country.
Regarding fuel, Díaz-Canel stated that Cuba has been “nine months without receiving a fuel ship,” a statement that contradicts the facts: the Russian tanker Anatoli Kolodkin arrived at the port of Matanzas on March 31, 2026, carrying around 100,000 tons of crude oil — equivalent to 740,000 barrels — and the unloading was completed on April 4, according to CUPET itself. The leader also did not mention the fuel imports carried out by the private sector.
The listeners' interventions were recorded in advance, so none were able to follow up or confront the leader's responses live, and the station did not explain the criteria for selecting calls.
«Shared Criterion» is the second attempt by Díaz-Canel to establish a direct communication channel with the public: in March 2024, he launched the podcast «From the Presidency», which reached 32 episodes and stopped updating without a public announcement, with its last episode dedicated to the controversial rate hike by ETECSA.
At the end of the program, the leader promised that all the calls received, including those that did not air, would be "transcribed, organized, and delivered for attention and follow-up."
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