Journalist Criticizes Internal Obstacles That Have Hindered Cuba's Progress

A journalist from the official Escambray newspaper, a publication of the Communist Party in Sancti Spíritus, has publicly criticized Cuba's own system for decades of hurdles and restrictions that have crippled the nation.

Elsa Ramos, who penned the article titled "The Urgency to Change to Lift a Nation," published on July 13, asserts that many of the 176 economic measures approved by the government in June merely serve to "legalize what was illegal, remove homegrown prohibitions that eroded the system and even its credibility, and eliminate bureaucratic Cuban structural obstacles."

The article's most forceful statement directly points to the regime's internal accountability: the reforms, Ramos writes, aim to "alleviate the internal blockade that has caused us great harm."

The journalist also questions why it took the government 15 years to implement proposals that were already included in the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party since 2011, now being touted as urgent solutions amid the collapse.

Ramos paints a stark picture of the reality faced by Cubans: widespread blackouts, spoiled food, "cards full of money with no cash in hand," wallets unable to cope with rising prices, shortages of water, medications, and connectivity.

Despite acknowledging the historical delay, Ramos supports the reforms with a sense of resignation: "better late than never, as the Cuban economy teeters on the brink, it has little choice but to try," and she adds: "A country cannot survive relying on fuel arriving ship by ship; nor on solidarity donations...."

Furthermore, the article cautions about the specific risks of these measures. It notes that thousands of workers have been in a "labor limbo" since February 2026 as indefinitely suspended, and questions how the government plans to address the unemployment that will arise from the restructuring of the state and budgeted sectors.

Regarding price liberalization, she is skeptical: pointing out that the State never managed to enforce even its own set tariffs while the informal market thrived "across all social networks."

Ramos poses a question that encapsulates the accumulated distrust: "How do you solve the equation where everyone will have what they can produce in a country where it's more profitable to resell candies than to labor under the sun?"

This critique from the journalist in Sancti Spíritus is not an isolated incident.

On July 9, Iraida Calzadilla, a retired journalist from the Granma newspaper, posted a fiery piece on Facebook against the Electric Union and the government, challenging Díaz-Canel's official slogan: "I want to see who dares to ask me for more creative resistance from well-covered basic and not-so-basic needs."

This trend of critical voices emerging from within the regime's own media apparatus carries particular symbolic weight: these are not dissidents or opposition figures, but journalists who have defended the system for decades and are now publicly questioning it.

Even Díaz-Canel himself admitted in June, at the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the PCC Central Committee, that there are "obstacles that do not come from outside or from the blockade" and that "resistance alone is not enough," marking an unprecedented acknowledgment after six decades of revolution.

The context in which these criticisms are published is dire. On Tuesday, July 14, Cuba experienced another massive blackout following the complete disconnection of the National Electric System at 11:05 am. It was the fifth total blackout recorded this year and the tenth in approximately 24 months.

In the financial sector, the dollar is trading at over 600 pesos in the informal market, while the official exchange rate remains at one for 24.

The 176 measures, organized into 23 strategic axes and approved on June 18 and 19, include the authorization of private banking, the removal of the 100-worker limit for SMEs, and the transformation of state companies into commercial corporations.

However, analysts point out that the creation of INAEES—a super-organism of control—contradicts the official rhetoric of business autonomy and suggests an undercover recentralization.