In the mansion of a luxury plastic surgeon overlooking Biscayne Bay in Miami, some of the wealthiest Cuban-American entrepreneurs in Florida gathered to outline their plans for the future of Cuba.
The scene is the focus of a report published this Friday by the BBC, written by its correspondent Will Grant, which depicts the anticipation felt by the business exile: having the capital ready for when the dictatorship falls.
The meeting was the fourth gathering of the Cuban-American National Chamber of Commerce (CANCC), an organization founded in April 2026.
Among the attendees, families with emblematic exile surnames like Bacardi and Babun discussed by the pool the state of the Cuban economy and the latest political developments on the island.
Juan Omar Sixto, president of the CANCC and a real estate developer aged 82 who fled Cuba as a teenager, summarized the purpose of the evening: "The intention is to gather under one roof the most prominent Cuban-American businesspeople in Miami-Dade County, and the goal is to be in Cuba once the regime falls."
The organization has already prepared a proposal to create a Cuban Stock Exchange and committees on energy infrastructure and food security.
Sixto also stated that the group is in contact with individuals close to Secretary of State Marco Rubio: "Along with deliveries of humanitarian aid and medical supplies, we would immediately start doing business in Cuba."
The plans of the business exile go far beyond the CANCC.
The architect Willy Bermello, 75 years old, holds biweekly videoconferences with airline executives and investment funds to refine a renovation project for eight Cuban airports for 8 billion dollars.
Jorge Mas Santos, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, is working on a 28-page transition bill with a provisional government lasting up to two years, and he assured Trump that gathering the $90 billion needed for the first three transition years would be “a piece of cake.”
Experts gathered in July at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora estimated that rebuilding Cuba would cost between 275 billion and 375 billion dollars over a period of 10 to 15 years.
The most contentious issue in any plan is the properties confiscated after 1959. Sixto acknowledged to the BBC that his father lost five properties and a farm in Pinar del Río: "I worked on that farm for five years of my life alongside my father, and they took it from us. I want restitution or compensation. Even if they only give me a cent for a dollar, I will accept it."
Cuban-American agricultural expert Hugo Orizondo defended the arrival of investors to the Cuban agriculture sector, although he acknowledged the current limitations: "Right now, Cuba is like a black hole; we don't know what's happening there. But we do know the potential."
Not everyone shares the optimism. Mike Bustamante, an associate professor of History at the University of Miami, warned that expectations for an immediate "day after" have been "deferred."
With the midterm elections in November approaching and the Trump administration entangled in the war in Iran, there is little room for new foreign adventures: "It's very hard to think they will escalate beyond what they are doing, which is this constant drip of sanctions."
The new OFAC sanctions effective from September 30 removed the authorization for banks under U.S. jurisdiction to maintain accounts for private Cuban entrepreneurs and prohibited "U-turn" bank transfers.
The regime responded with 176 measures for economic liberalization that the attendees of the CANCC dismissed as "cosmetic." Sixto was blunt: they would not "set foot in Cuba" as long as the dictatorship remains in power.
Rubio, for his part, ruled out any fixed deadlines in July: "We are not a miniseries where everything is resolved in three episodes. These are complex matters that take time."
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