Jorge Mas Santos (Miami, 63) is a number one determine of the Cuban exile community in the United States. He’s so by inheritance —because the son of the historic Jorge Mas Canosa, who died in 1997 and championed the Helms-Burton Act that tightened the American embargo towards the island— and by his present standing: president of the Cuban American Nationwide Basis, majority shareholder of the engineering and infrastructure firm MasTec, which trades on the New York Inventory Trade, and proprietor of Inter Miami, the membership that introduced Lionel Messi to town in 2023.
He desires to stay a number one determine going ahead as effectively, by laying out attainable eventualities for a post-Castro Cuba —a process he has intensified for the reason that navy operation by which america captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January. That second marked the start of unprecedented pressure from Washington on Havana by the tactic of oil strangulation, which has pushed the island to the brink of collapse and introduced its leaders to the negotiating table —together with, in a unprecedented picture, head to head with CIA director John Ratcliffe, who visited Havana final Thursday in a gesture that Mas reads as “a part of a really clear technique by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”
The day after that assembly, Mas spoke with EL PAÍS over the cellphone from Miami. He had beforehand shared two paperwork. One is titled “Roadmap for a Affluent, Democratic and Free-Market Cuba“, and proposes, amongst many different factors, modernizing the island’s banking system, eliminating earnings tax, selling tax exemptions for corporations with no less than 10% home capital participation, and prioritizing the pharmaceutical, navy, and heavy trade sectors.
The opposite is a draft “Basic Regulation for the democratic transition.” Drafted in collaboration with the Cuban American Bar Affiliation, it’s an train in comparative regulation: 28 pages lengthy, with the looks of a structure: a preamble, 115 articles, and 9 transitional provisions.
Higher recognized for his wealth and his sporting and enterprise ventures than for his political involvement, the obvious imminence of change in Cuba has drawn Mas —who has by no means set foot in Cuba however hopes to take action quickly— right into a course of by which, he says, he’s aligned with and dealing alongside the U.S. authorities. “Every thing is transferring very quick. We’re speaking about months,” he warns.
Query: What number of months?
Reply: It might occur from in the future to the following. I estimate earlier than the top of summer time. Perhaps not even that lengthy. We’ll see modifications inside weeks. The scenario is unsustainable. The system doesn’t work. [Cuba] is a failed state, incapable of offering its residents with staple items: meals, electrical energy, water —not to mention alternative, goals, work, a future.
Q: Trump has stated he’ll wait till he has “completed with Iran” earlier than “taking Cuba,” although that disaster appears entrenched —and but this week everything seems to have accelerated in his Cuba strategy.
A: The president and Secretary Rubio have stated they’ll give [the regime] an opportunity, however it’s clear they don’t imagine it’s able to the change that’s wanted.
Q: Do you rule out navy intervention?
A: That isn’t for me to resolve, and even weigh-in on —however I don’t assume any choice might be dominated out in relation to Cuba.
Q: You traveled to Washington in March and, as proprietor of Inter Miami, the league champions, met with Trump. Cuba got here up. What did you are taking away from that dialog?
A: In non-public, we had conversations concerning the island. Rubio, as , is one in every of ours right here in Miami. Our friendship goes again virtually 30 years. We’re all rowing in the identical path and are very, very aligned on what Cuba must prosper.
Q: Rubio has spoken of the potential for financial change alone. However on Wednesday he expressed skepticism on Fox Information about “altering Cuba’s trajectory whereas these persons are nonetheless in cost.”
A: Their incompetence [that of the Castroist regime] makes an entire political change of management vital. Financial reconstruction clearly needs to be preceded by the institution of the rule of regulation. In actuality, you must begin from virtually zero, as a result of the system and the political construction don’t work. Outdoors the island there may be a unprecedented capability to contribute to that reconstruction, as confirmed by the Cubans who’ve succeeded right here —beginning with Rubio.
Q: What do you plan to bridge that financial and social hole between Cubans on the within and people on the skin?
A: All of that is for the profit and wellbeing of Cubans on the within. Clearly, these of us on the skin can contribute information, effort, work, and monetary assets. I’m a terrific believer within the island’s future —and in the truth that that future goes past constructing lodges and seaside tourism. You must begin by rebuilding the infrastructure: ports, airports, in addition to civilian governance in cities and municipalities. The healthcare system additionally must be made to operate.
Q: Your roadmap envisions a healthcare system based mostly essentially on non-public initiative. Wouldn’t it resemble the American mannequin?
A: No, it’s a mixture of fashions. There have to be non-public actors, however with a common social entitlement. They are often non-public methods, however without charge to the citizen —folks would entry vouchers, paid for by the state. It’s a hybrid that exists in lots of nations. The American system, as everyone knows, doesn’t essentially work.
Q: Your “elementary constitution” —is it a draft Cuban structure?
A: It’s a authorized framework designed to reply to the nice curiosity of many international buyers who wish to assist rebuild. These are solutions for the financial sphere, but additionally for human rights, to allow a transition towards free elections and a brand new structure. Cuba should change into a rule-of-law state.
Q: Will this new Cuba resemble the one which existed earlier than Castro got here to energy [when the dictator Fulgencio Batista was in charge]?
A: No. There isn’t a level in going again to that: it’s a totally different world. My aspiration is for it to be a first-tier technological nation, probably the most open economies on this planet. We’ve at our disposal the world’s largest client market: america. Cuba has to profit from that. Will probably be a contemporary financial system, a democratic, pluralist system of presidency with a number of political events. I converse of the Cuban financial miracle —a rustic that resembles nothing from the previous and appears towards the longer term.
Q: What would its relationship with america seem like? There’s the financial potential, but additionally the danger of domination by enterprise at any value. The shadow of the protectorate.
A: I see america as a terrific ally. A 3rd of the Cuban inhabitants is right here. We’re brothers, and we might be first-rate buying and selling companions. I’m not anxious about america, as a result of it’s a nation of extraordinary greatness. It isn’t excellent —no nation is— nevertheless it proved, with my mother and father’ technology, who arrived right here with nothing, that it’s able to opening its arms and welcoming us.
Q: May Cuba change into the 51st state of america, because the extra imperialist pressure of Trump’s pondering fantasizes about with Canada or Venezuela?
A: That’s untimely. I don’t rule it out, however the future needs to be decided by Cubans. They have to be provided that choice —and others— by the poll field.
Q: And do you envision a state of affairs of tutelage like Venezuela’s —a Cuba run from Washington with some model of Castroism nonetheless nominally in energy?
A: The circumstances of Venezuela and Cuba are very totally different. In Cuba there are not any functioning constructions or institutional forces. An entire change of management is required, and it could come from inside. What occurred in Venezuela was proper for Venezuela, nevertheless it won’t work in Cuba, which is a failed state.
Q: Because you don’t see a Cuban Delcy Rodríguez within the image, who can be Cuba’s María Corina Machado?
A: There are a lot of, inside Cuba. Proper now they can’t converse freely to the folks with out placing their lives in danger. That’s the distinction. In Venezuela you can have a Machado, or elections that she gained. In Cuba, no —however there are numerous individuals who might change into the longer term María Corina Machados.
Q: Would you help placing Castroism on trial?
A: These are selections for a council of Cubans to make. One of the best factor that may occur to Castroism is for it to be buried like a dinosaur from the previous.
Q: A judicial indictment of Raúl Castro, at 94, seems imminent…
A: I’m anticipating an announcement on the indictment on Wednesday. And it’s proper. From the muse now we have pushed for it, as a result of it’s deserved —to ship justice to the households of the [exiles] whose two plane of Hermanos al Rescate had been shot down [in 1996]. Regardless of the case, it’s a resolution for the U.S. Division of Justice. We will see.
Q: How do you deliver out all of the submerged financial system that exists on the island?
A: Cuba’s financial reconstruction I see as not simply achievable however tremendous simple. You have to create a authorized framework the place the market prevails, the place the Cuban persons are the beneficiaries, and the place international funding is incentivized. With the exile group alone —and right here I converse for myself, as somebody with a pretty big firm [with a market capitalization of around $32.7 billion]— the capital wanted to rebuild Cuba is just not arduous to lift. Whether or not it takes 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 billion, regardless of the determine, it won’t be an issue.
Q: Will that cash come from the exile group?
A: No doubt —however it would additionally assist that Cuba opens as much as the world. Funding funds will contribute considerably as effectively. Cuba won’t lack capital or financial assets for its reconstruction, as long as there’s a system that protects these investments.
Q: Is the exile group united?
A: I’ve been at this for a few years. There has by no means been a relationship as shut and as coordinated because the one which exists at the moment. Rosa María Payá [Pasos de Cambio], Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat [Cuban Resistance Assembly], and others who’ve led a number of the most acknowledged organizations are in fixed communication. All of us hope that is the ultimate stretch.
Q: And if it isn’t?
A: Since I received deeply concerned on this, it has been a highway filled with disappointments. When the Soviet Union fell, when Fidel Castro died, when Raúl stepped down… Many instances, Cuba’s freedom appeared simply across the nook. We by no means quit. I’m a person of religion, and this path is dictated by God —we’re devices of that.
Q: Have you ever ever seen it really feel this imminent?
A: By no means —due to the conviction and management of President Trump and Secretary Rubio. They’ve set themselves to the duty of delivering on what they promised.
