Amid Cuba's economic crisis, a heated debate emerges between advocates of comprehensive reforms and critics pushing for a return to the past, labeled counter-reformists. Author Ruben Padrón Garriga argues that implemented measures do not qualify as true reform but as isolated, reactive actions. This exchange revives discussions on the future of the socialist model on the island.
The opinion piece by Ruben Padrón Garriga in La Joven Cuba, translated into English by Havana Times, critiques what it calls 'counter-reform' in Cuba. The author states that remnants of Stalinism are reviving options like reforming, revolutionizing, staying put, or returning to the past, aiming to silence critics who do not uncritically echo the party line.
Padrón Garriga argues there has been no integral reform, only isolated measures. He cites the expansion of the private sector promoted in the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Sixth Communist Party Congress in 2011, updated in 2016 and ratified in the 2019 Constitution. He also points to the 2021 'Monetary Ordering,' which eliminated the CUC but led to multiple exchange rates and greater partial dollarization. Following the July 2021 protests, small and medium private businesses were authorized amid shortages of food and basic goods.
Yet, core issues remain: lack of autonomy in state enterprises and excessive controls on the private sector, resulting in dwindling national production, import dependency, and rampant inflation. The Enterprise Law, proposed to address the first issue, remains indefinitely postponed and was not discussed in the last National Assembly session.
The plan to 'correct distortions,' supposedly in place for a year, drew criticism from economists and citizens, forcing the government to launch a popular consultation. In 2025, La Joven Cuba published a dossier with proposals from nine economists, including eliminating ministerial subordination of enterprises, dual pricing systems, and redirecting public investment from tourism to agriculture, manufacturing, and energy infrastructure.
The author rejects blaming 'reformists' for current problems and criticizes actions like disproportionately investing in empty hotels or dollarizing state stores for basic goods. He references Rosa Luxemburg to argue that denying reform in the name of ideological purity condemns the people to misery. He compares to reformist governments like Lula da Silva's in Brazil or Morena's project in Mexico, and Vietnam's Doi Moi, which has achieved sustained macroeconomic results, while Cuba's Communist Party postponed its congress due to the severe crisis.
Padrón Garriga concludes that economic and political reform is needed to open participation spaces, avoiding factional fights and restoring hope amid international adversities.
