Cuba Transition Proposals
For decades, discussions about Cuba’s future have focused on one question: when will the regime end? and not: what comes next?
After the system collapses, Cuba will not have the luxury of improvisation. It will require functioning institutions, clear laws, economic stability, and a plan to prevent disorder. Without preparation, even the promise of freedom can give way to chaos.
This framework is not a constitution, nor a political manifesto. It is a practical outline of how a free Cuba could operate by restoring democratic governance, securing property rights, rebuilding infrastructure, and integrating into the global economy. What follows is a set of proposals designed to ensure that liberation is not only achieved but sustained.
Economically, this framework outlines a path for rapid stabilization followed by sustained long-term growth. Starting from a current economy of roughly $100 billion, the implementation of democratic governance, market reforms, and reintegration into global trade, particularly with the United States, is projected to trigger an initial high-growth phase, driven by investment, tourism, and private-sector development.
Over time, as institutions mature and the economy diversifies, growth is expected to stabilize, ultimately transforming Cuba into a high-income economy comparable to developed nations.
While these projections depend on disciplined implementation and political stability, the underlying evidence from other post-communist transitions suggests that comprehensive reform can dramatically increase national output, living standards, and economic opportunity within a generation.
PROPOSAL 1: The nation should adopt a new constitution that meets the needs of the times we are living in. The document must enshrine the inalienable rights and duties of the government and citizens.
PROPOSAL 2: Establish an autonomous elections commission responsible for overseeing the conduct of elections, including vote counting, serving as the definitive authority on electoral matters, and supervising provincial and municipal elections.
PROPOSAL 3: Restore the original six provinces: Pinar del Río, La Habana, Matanzas, Las Villas, Camagüey, and Oriente, along with the territory of Isla de Pinos, organized as a federal republic.
PROPOSAL 4: Overhaul all provincial insignia, encompassing the development of new flags and coats of arms for each province, municipality, and city, to establish a distinctive emblem of local culture.
PROPOSAL 5: Enact a Jus Sanguinis Act to grant citizenship to all exiles and children thereof. Structure the return of exiles as a strategic driver of rapid growth, encompassing investment, expertise, reconciliation, and measures to prevent the reversal of brain drain, enabling exiles to act as an extension of the nation, free to travel, invest as they wish, and own businesses from outside the island under specific conditions.
PROPOSAL 6: Enact a Land Management Act to reform all matters concerning land, valuation, property, titles, restitution, enforcement, regulation, and protection of property.
PROPOSAL 7: Enact a Property Rights Act to constitutionally protect private property rights, ownership, safeguard against arbitrary seizure, and title processes.
PROPOSAL 8: Establish a National Registry of Historic Properties to identify, evaluate, list, and protect Cuba's significant historic buildings, monuments, districts, sites, and cultural landscapes for preservation.
PROPOSAL 9: Enact a Lands and Waters Protection Act to safeguard biodiversity, ecosystems, cultural landscapes, and natural resources while allowing sustainable use, scientific research, and eco-tourism revenue.
PROPOSAL 10: Enact a National Park Service Act to designate, protect, and maintain national park areas for public use and ecological protection.
PROPOSAL 11: Enact a Wildlife and Fisheries Rights Act to explicitly grant regulated rights to Cuban citizens and residents to fish and hunt.
PROPOSAL 12: Enact a National Highways System Act to restore and upgrade the national road network to meet safe, reliable, and high-capacity standards, targeting 80-90% of the network to be paved or maintained within five to ten years.
Proposal 13: Enact a National Transport Act to rejuvenate and expand the existing rail network, establishing connections among Cuba's provincial capitals. Additionally, the modernization of airports, seaports, inter-provincial rail, and inner-city transport.
PROPOSAL 14: Dissolve ETECSA and establish a National Communications Commission responsible for licensing, spectrum allocation, and standards, modeled after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Open the market to private providers and permit up to 100% foreign ownership in non-strategic sectors.
PROPOSAL 15: Dissolve Unión Eléctrica (UNE) into regional operators, such as local boards, involving local and private sector input.
PROPOSAL 16: Enact a National Water Act for the development, regulation, licensing, and oversight of clean water and sanitation.
PROPOSAL 17: Transition agriculture to a private, market-driven model that emphasizes secure property rights. This builds on previous land reforms and incorporates mechanization and rural infrastructure development.
PROPOSAL 18: Enact a Labor Regulations Act responsible for overseeing labor reform, benefits, and fair employment.
PROPOSAL 19: Enact an Education Reform Act to decentralize administrative authority to provincial and local governments, where community boards consist of parents and residents.
PROPOSAL 20: Reform police, prisons, abolish the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), leftover MININT intelligence elements, Interior Ministry holdouts, and paramilitary and militia organizations.
PROPOSAL 21: Enact a National Tax System to create a contemporary, flat, or simple tax structure that reduces distortions, promotes work and investment, maintains progressivity through targeted relief, and secures steady revenue for public services.
PROPOSAL 22: Establish a National Superannuation System to introduce a mandatory, portable superannuation (super) system which mandates employer contributions to build individual retirement savings and thereby reduces dependence on the state pension.
PROPOSAL 23: Transform the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) into a modern, resilient system that ensures universal coverage, high-quality care, innovation, and sustainability by integrating public financing and guarantees with private provision, competition, and the option for private care.
PROPOSAL 24: Establish via constitutional amendment the complete freedom of expression, press, artistic work, and cultural activities, with no prior censorship or content restrictions except in limited cases.
PROPOSAL 25: Post-communism, abolish the embargo that restricts access to U.S. markets, who is a natural trading partners due to their proximity, and also hampers access to technology, medicine, fuel, and financial services, causing shortages, blackouts, and rising poverty.
PROPOSAL 26: Replace the Cuban peso (CUP) and any remnants of the convertible peso (CUC) with the U.S. dollar as the official currency.
PROPOSAL 27: Formulate a bilateral agreement or treaty titled Prime American Doctrine with the United States, which grants U.S. citizens and corporations prioritized, visa-free access for purposes of travel, residence, and investment.
PROPOSAL 28: Negotiate and formalize a bilateral Compact of Free Association and Mutual Security with the United States, conferring sovereignty upon Cuba while preserving U.S. defensive commitments, economic aid, and the freedom of citizen movement.
This article provides a condensed overview of a much broader framework. The proposals presented here are summaries of more detailed policy designs, legal structures, and implementation strategies outlined in the full report.
As such, this overview should not be interpreted as a complete representation of the framework, but rather as an introduction to its core ideas. Readers interested in the full scope, underlying rationale, and detailed mechanisms are encouraged to review the complete document.
