The Cuban economist Elaine Castro Castañeda published an analysis on Facebook this Thursday that dismantles, point by point, what she calls "the complete trap" of the Cuban regime in response to the new financial sanctions from the United States against the island.
The trigger is the decision by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury (OFAC) to revoke, as of September 30, the authorization that since 2024 allowed banks under U.S. jurisdiction to maintain accounts for private Cuban entrepreneurs. Funds have been frozen, and their release now requires an individual license. Díaz-Canel accused Washington of harming the Cuban private sector, and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez stepped in to defend the "proven efficiency" of GAESA, the business conglomerate of the Armed Forces.
Castro Castañeda, a graduate in economics who left Cuba in 2018 and currently resides in Uruguay, flatly rejects that narrative.
“Who made the Cuban dependent on a MIPYME that belongs to themselves to eat? THE DICTATORSHIP,” he writes. He adds: “They destroyed agriculture, prohibited private enterprise for 60 years, and now that everything is broken, they tell you that the only way to eat is thanks to them, and if the U.S. touches their MIPYMES, you will starve.”
The economist acknowledges that the impact is real for the average Cuban: MIPYMES are now the almost exclusive channel for accessing basic necessities such as chicken, oil, and detergent, as well as for receiving remittances from abroad. However, she warns that this is not an accident, but rather the deliberate outcome of decades of economic destruction.
"They make you dependent and then use your hunger as a shield," he summarized.
The core of his argument points directly to GAESA, the economic arm of the Armed Forces, which The New York Times described last May as an entity that controls between 40% and 70% of the formal Cuban economy, with estimated assets of over 18 billion dollars. Castro Castañeda argues that many MSMEs that handle half a million dollars are not real private companies, but rather instruments of the military apparatus disguised as entrepreneurship.
"As long as GAESA controls 70% of the foreign currency, any dollar that comes in, whether through MIPYME, remittances, or tourism, ends up in the hands of their own military to suppress you afterward," he writes.
In response to those calling for the lifting of sanctions, the economist suggests three solutions that, she emphasizes, do not depend on Washington but on Havana: that the military withdraw from the economy, that genuine entrepreneurs be distinguished from front men, and that free agricultural production with land ownership for farmers be allowed.
Regarding the first point, he notes that the OFAC has left a window open: section §515.584(h)(1) is still in effect and allows accounts to receive authorized payments. "If you are a legitimate designer in Cuba, you can continue to get paid. The one who is crying is the one who was using the account to move half a million dollars in chicken," he states.
On the third point, she is unequivocal: "No sanction will ensure there is food if you do not produce food. As long as they cling to the idea that a farmer cannot own land and sell their harvest freely, they will continue to suffer with or without measures."
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio described GAESA as the "financial heart of the regime" and stated on Tuesday that Cuban military personnel "will not be able to steal money or profit at the expense" of the people. A former employee of the conglomerate recently revealed the presence of military counterintelligence within GAESA.
"The average Cuban suffers today because the regime has taken him hostage between sanctions and its monopoly. And the dictatorship cries not because it feels your hunger, but because it hurts that its trick has been seen," concludes Castro Castañeda, before his most forceful statement: "The solution is not to ask the U.S. to finance GAESA disguised as a MIPYME. The solution is for Cuba to stop being a farm run by the military."
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