Cuba Invites Diaspora to Own Businesses for First Time

The Cuba economy is being opened to its diaspora in the most sweeping reform since the revolution, as the government announced Monday that Cubans living abroad — including in the United States — can for the first time invest in, own, and operate private businesses on the island. The package, detailed by Vice Prime Minister Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga on NBC and the state television program Mesa Redonda, goes well beyond small enterprises to encompass large-scale infrastructure, banking, agriculture, and mining. The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, examines how the reforms represent both an economic lifeline and a political signal within the broader US-Cuba standoff now playing out between Washington and the Castro family.

What the Cuba Economy Reforms Allow

Under the new rules, Cubans living abroad — even without residency on the island — can become partners or full owners of private enterprises, including the micro, small, and medium-sized firms (MiPyMEs) permitted since 2021. Critically, the reforms extend beyond small business. Diaspora investors can now participate in large-scale infrastructure projects, tourism, mining, and energy modernization under Cuba’s Foreign Investment Law. They can also form joint ventures with both state and private Cuban entities, a combination that was previously restricted to foreign companies from non-US countries. Earlier this month, Havana had already authorized public-private partnerships for the first time in nearly six decades.

The financial dimension is equally significant. Overseas Cubans will be able to establish investment banks and non-bank financial institutions with Central Bank licensing, open foreign-currency accounts at domestic banks, invest in development funds, and obtain licenses to operate as virtual-asset service providers. Agriculture is a stated priority, with officials citing Vietnamese-style land-use concessions to diaspora-linked enterprises as a model for boosting food production. Cuba’s private sector already accounts for roughly 15% of GDP, employs more than 30% of the active workforce, and in 2025 surpassed state retail sales for the first time at 55% of total commerce. The question is whether the approximately 10,000 existing private firms — and new entrants — can operate freely enough to attract serious capital.

The Political Calculus Behind the Opening

The timing is no coincidence. The reforms were announced as Havana navigates secretive negotiations with Washington under intense pressure from the Trump administration, which has imposed a de facto oil blockade since January after capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cutting off Cuba’s primary fuel supply. President Trump told reporters Monday he believes he will have “the honor of taking Cuba,” adding he could “do anything I want with it.” The New York Times reported the administration has told Cuban negotiators that President Miguel Díaz-Canel must leave office before any substantive deal can proceed — not as an ultimatum, but as what officials described as a “positive step” toward productive agreements.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been dealing directly with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the 41-year-old grandson of former president Raúl Castro and a colonel in the Interior Ministry who serves as Havana’s lead interlocutor. Pérez-Oliva Fraga — himself a great-nephew of Fidel and Raúl Castro, and the official who unveiled Monday’s economic package — has been given unusual public visibility, fueling speculation he is being positioned as a potential successor to Díaz-Canel. Cuba has insisted its political system remains non-negotiable, but the economic concessions tell a different story. Whether the diaspora will actually invest depends on detailed regulations yet to be published, the fate of the US embargo that blocks most commercial activity, and whether Washington and Havana can bridge a gap that still appears vast. The Cuba economy may be opening its doors, but the United States wants regime change, while Havana is offering economic reform without political transformation.