According to the Spanish news agency EFE, the members of the group are Omar Everleny Pérez, Juan Triana, and Julio Carranza, along with former minister José Luis Rodríguez García and lawmaker José Carlos del Toro Ríos.
14ymedio/EFE, Havana/Madrid, June 17, 2026 — Three Cuban economists who have been “critical” of the regime are part of a group of experts convened by President Miguel Díaz-Canel to propose reforms that go beyond those already announced, three sources familiar with the initiative confirmed to EFE.
The Spanish news agency reports that the team has already held its first meeting, following an initial contact session last Friday. That was the day the president announced reforms that, according to his own explanation, were largely measures already approved or planned, including the reduction of ministries, new housing and agricultural land laws, greater flexibility in exports, and opening investment opportunities to Cuban Americans.
In addition, Díaz-Canel left several questions unanswered, including pending changes in the tourism sector and a reduction in the activities currently prohibited to the private sector.
EFE now reports that the initiative comes directly from the Presidency and has no connection to the teams of Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and Minister of Economy and Planning Joaquín Alonso
EFE now reports that the initiative comes directly from the Presidency and has no connection to the teams of Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and Minister of Economy and Planning Joaquín Alonso.
Among the five experts who make up the core of this new advisory team are Omar Everleny Pérez, Juan Triana, and Julio Carranza, all of whom have for years regularly expressed their views in independent media and called for economic reforms. Some have spent years outside official circles. However, none of the three fits exactly into the category of radical critical economist. They are, with important differences, moderate reformers, historically or currently linked to official institutions.
Pérez Villanueva has been the most direct critic of the government’s economic management. The former director of the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy (CEEC) has blamed the crisis not only on US sanctions, but also on internal errors, low productivity, obstacles to the private sector, and a lack of investment. His proposals aim to expand the scope of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), reform agriculture, grant greater autonomy to businesses, and create a functional foreign exchange market, although his proposals do not place him outside the framework of socialism.
Triana Cordoví, for his part, has developed a more institutional critique, focusing on the slowness, contradictions, and constant “back and forth” of official economic policy. Linked for years to the Ceec (Center for Economic and Business Studies), he calls for more stable regulations, a realistic exchange rate, and the permanent recognition of the private sector within the national economy. His proposals seek to correct excessive centralization and improve the functioning of a mixed economic model, but they do not represent a political break nor do they question the central role the State reserves for its companies.
Carranza Valdés aligns more clearly with the reformist socialist tradition. For decades, he has advocated a comprehensive transformation of the model, with greater scope for the market, regulated private property, decentralization, and foreign investment. His criticism is directed at the implementation of piecemeal and disconnected measures and the government’s inability to address structural problems, but he does not propose abandoning socialism. More than a dissident, he is an economist who proposes reforming it to make it viable.
The core advisory team is completed by two figures from the official establishment: former Minister of Economy and Planning José Luis Rodríguez García and José Carlos del Toro Ríos, president of the National Association of Economists and Accountants (ANEC).
Their proposals vary, but they generally agree on the direction they believe the Island’s economy should take in order to achieve overall stabilization, strengthen its foundations, and move toward sustainable economic growth. None of them ignores the damage caused by the U.S. sanctions.
With varying degrees of emphasis, they advocate giving greater weight to the private sector, opening the Island to foreign investment, granting more autonomy to state-owned enterprises, promoting local agricultural and industrial production, creating legal certainty, and addressing the current monetary chaos (with two currencies, three official exchange rates, and an informal market rate).
The core of the advisory team is completed by two figures from the ruling party: former Minister of Economy and Planning José Luis Rodríguez García, and the president of the National Association of Economists and Accountants (ANEC), José Carlos del Toro Ríos. Both are also deputies in the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP).
With varying degrees of emphasis, they advocate giving greater weight to the private sector, opening the Island to foreign investment, granting more autonomy to state-owned enterprises, promoting local agricultural and industrial production, creating legal certainty, and addressing the current monetary chaos
The goal is for these experts’ proposals to build upon the package of measures announced by Díaz-Canel last Friday, which will be evaluated Wednesday afternoon by the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. Following that, on Thursday, and with its approval, the reforms will be submitted to the ANPP, which typically ratifies proposals unanimously.
The purpose of these economic changes is twofold: to address the deep structural crisis affecting the Island and to ease pressure from the United States, which is demanding profound political and economic reforms from Havana and has even threatened military intervention to achieve them.
Many fear that the regime may choose—with Washington’s acceptance—to implement only economic changes, moving toward a model similar to that of China or Vietnam, the latter considered a key U.S. partner.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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