Cuban government announces major free-market reforms, but U.S. and exiles left skeptical

A woman watches a televised speech by Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel during the third Extraordinary Session of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power in Havana, on June 18, 2026. Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

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HAVANA, Cuba — The revolution was televised — but many Cubans missed it because they had no electricity.

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On Thursday, with a U.S. blockade throttling its power supply, Cuba’s communist government announced the most radical free-market reforms since Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

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Soledad, whose Havana neighbourhood of Jesus Maria was struggling through yet another 24-hour-plus power cut — a feature of life in the capital since President Donald Trump cut off Cuba’s fuel imports in January, “heard nothing.”

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But Carlos Dibus, one of millions of Cubans who have fled abroad, was listening intently.

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He was still digesting the reforms as he tucked into breakfast Friday at a restaurant in Havana’s picturesque old town.

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“If implemented properly, it could work wonderfully! It’s not that we’d switch to capitalism, but rather a more open form of socialism, like China in its time,” he enthused.

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The 176 changes unveiled Thursday directly target overseas Cubans, inviting them to open companies on the island, buy chunks of state enterprises and develop tourist infrastructure, among other opportunities.

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Dibus, a logistics expert who left the central city of Santa Clara for Norway 19 years ago but sorely misses his mother’s home cooking, told AFP he was planning to return to Cuba in a few years.

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“With all these openings that are happening now, maybe I’ll start a business,” the 43-year-old mused.

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Across the Straits of Florida, however, Miami Cubans reacted more cautiously, describing the reforms as too little, too late.

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A U.S. State Department spokesman dismissed the transformation as “superficial smoke signals” and said Trump would continue to apply pressure to “drive much more substantial economic and political reforms that would make Cuba investable.”

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“If they are looking for cosmetic or temporary changes to satisfy Washington, that will fall short,” Carlos Saladrigas, president of a human resources company, said.

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“As long as there is no political certainty for Cuba, it will be very difficult to attract foreign capital,” Saladrigas, who is also president of the Cuba Study Group think tank, added.

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Emilio Morales, president of the Havana Consulting Group, dismissed the reforms as a desperate bid by the Cuban government to remain in power.

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“The Cuban exile community isn’t going to invest in Cuba if there isn’t political change,” he concluded. “These people have been deceiving everyone for 67 years!”

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On the island itself, many residents are hungry for any change that could appease Cuba’s arch-foe across the water and end acute shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.

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“Something has to change because we can’t keep living like this, we’re dying of hunger,” an elderly woman in Havana, who did not wish to give her name, told AFP.

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Amarilys Veloz, the 62-year-old owner of a tourist apartment in the city’s old town — whose customers have dwindled to a trickle since the blockade began — welcomed the opportunity “to open up to the world.”