Havana is preparing to allow Cuban exiles to own businesses on the island for the first time since the 1959 revolution, according to sources familiar with the policy discussions - a watershed moment that could reshape the Cuban economy and mark the regime's most significant opening to the diaspora in six decades.
The new regulations, expected to be announced in coming weeks, would permit Cubans living abroad to establish and own private enterprises in Cuba without requiring a resident partner, breaking with decades of revolutionary orthodoxy that treated the Miami exile community as enemies of the state.
"This could be Cuba's Deng Xiaoping moment," said Paolo Spadoni, an economist at Augusta University who studies the Cuban economy. "Economic necessity is forcing ideological flexibility. The question is whether Havana can open the economy without losing political control."
Cuba's economy has been in freefall since the pandemic, with GDP contracting, chronic shortages of food and medicine, and the worst energy crisis in decades triggering unprecedented migration. More than 400,000 Cubans have fled to the United States since 2022 alone. The regime needs dollars desperately - and the diaspora, estimated at 2.5 million people with billions in purchasing power, represents the most accessible source.
The policy shift follows years of incremental reforms. In 2021, Havana authorized small and medium-sized private enterprises, ending the state's near-total monopoly on economic activity. More than 11,000 private businesses have registered since then, concentrated in restaurants, construction, and services. But the state still controls the commanding heights: banking, imports, wholesale trade, and all major industries.
Allowing diaspora ownership changes the game entirely. Miami's Cuban-American community includes successful entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and investors - precisely the capital and expertise Cuba needs but has systematically rejected for political reasons.
