Cuba's top diplomats have stated that US sanctions are significantly impeding the island's attempts to overhaul its economy and adopt capitalist reforms. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández De Cossío emphasized that if the US were to ease its pressure, these transformations in Cuba could become irreversible, which he claims is also the US's theoretical aim. This sentiment is echoed by Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, who questioned why the US continues to impose sanctions when it demands private investment and Cuba is implementing reforms to encourage it.
Despite Cuba's efforts, including significant shifts announced by President Miguel Díaz-Canel in June to allow more private businesses, facilitate imports and exports without state intermediation, and authorize private banks, the US has continued to apply economic penalties. For instance, new sanctions targeted state-owned mining, metal, and construction companies, and later five state companies, including those linked to GAESA, which commands nearly 40% of Cuba's GDP. Senator Marco Rubio, a key architect of the Trump administration's Cuba policy, has been vocal, stating that new sanctions will be announced regularly to close off "escape valves" and calling Cuba a "failed state" with a "bad economic model."
The US sanctions, including an oil blockade imposed in January on top of a decades-old embargo, have pushed Cuba to the brink. This has led to debilitating blackouts, disruptions in public transport, crippled infrastructure, and deepened shortages of medicine and food. Guzmán highlighted that the impact of US measures, particularly the lack of electricity and fuel, has deterred investors and tourists, a major source of income for Cuba. Some companies, such as the Spanish hotel chain Meliá, have even pulled out due to "significant operational, legal, economic and financial difficulties" caused by the sanctions.
Cuban officials believe that implementing their economic changes would be much easier without these sanctions, especially if American companies were involved and trade between the two countries was possible. The reforms include opportunities for investments in real estate, solar farms, energy, marinas, and tourism. Rubio, however, views the situation as a matter of US national security and expresses a desire for Cuba to be prosperous and free, implying that the current sanctions are a means to effect positive change.
