A group of successful Cuban American entrepreneurs and business leaders from South Florida say they stand ready to contribute to Cuba’s rebuilding, but need to see major changes on the island.

At a meeting Tuesday evening in Miami, the Cuban Americans, representing an assortment of businesses in South Florida, discussed the potential for changes that might open Cuba to international investment, especially to Cubans who left the island.

Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said on March 16 that Cuba would be open to having Cubans living abroad, including Cuban Americans in South Florida, to invest in and own businesses on the island, though the government in Havana has since made few moves to make that a reality, or to begin to make changes to its bureaucracy to offer security and guarantees to investors.

At an informal meeting in Miami on Tuesday, organized by publicist and real estate agent Omar Sixto, the Cuban American business leaders signed a proclamation committing to “extend their financial resources, their experience, their capital and their patriotic motivation to develop a new and prosperous democratic Cuba.”

Sixto, a descendant of a tobacco-growing family whose businesses were confiscated when the Castro regime came to power, said “the drive to create businesses is in the Cuban DNA.” Just as Cubans founded successful companies in exile, he said, Cuba can prosper with the help and expertise of entrepreneurs who had to rebuild their lives after fleeing communism.

“We Cuban-Americans in exile are willing to move capital to Cuba when change comes,” said Sixto, owner of the real estate company Brickell and Key Biscayne Realty, stressing that such efforts require the existence of a democratic government in Cuba.

The proclamation, which carried 50 signatures, includes references to the Helms-Burton Act, the 1996 U.S. law that codified the U.S. embargo on Cuba and which prohibits its lifting until after free elections are held on the island.

Preparing for change

The desire of Cuban-Americans to contribute to Cuba’s recovery gained momentum after the Trump administration confirmed it has been in talks with the Cuban government, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Many entrepreneurs have said they trust Rubio, a Cuban American from Miami who is knowledgeable on Cuban affairs, to take steps that could lead to changes on the island.

Attorney Nicolas “Nick” Gutiérrez, president of the National Association of Cuban Landowners in Exile, attended Tuesday’s event and said he feels optimistic that change in Cuba is very near. He worked with the Reagan and both Bush administrations, he said, and they never came this close.

“Now we’re talking about whether the regime will survive next month. That has never been discussed in my life,” said Gutiérrez, whose organization defends the interests of landowners whose properties in Cuba were expropriated by the Castro regime.

“The problem in Cuba is the regime.... Rubio has recognized that Cuba needs new leadership. Without new leadership there is no solution for Cuba,” said Gutiérrez, who has been harshly criticized by the Cuban regime for helping Cuban landowners who sued U.S. and international companies over the use of confiscated properties.

Gutiérrez, born in Costa Rica, said his family owned two sugar mills in Cuba that no longer exist because they were dismantled by the government. The family also owned coffee plantations, a rice mill and a private bank that financed the family’s operations.

The vast majority of owners who were subject to confiscations remain on the island, Gutiérrez said, noting they may not have received as much visibility because they owned lesser-known, more modest properties.

“The farmer who lost his farm when he rose up against the dictatorship has the same right as any landowner in Miami to recover his property,” he said.

The attorney mentioned the need to help Cubans out of the precarious situation they live in on the island. “We have to unleash the entrepreneurial energies of that people, those who stayed inside and those who are outside,” he said.

The Cuban American entrepreneurs cited the lack of legal guarantees for investing in Cuba under current laws as one key concern holding up any desire to contribute to economic progress on the island. Gutiérrez argues that, to create a climate of trust among future investors, the legitimate owners of confiscated properties should be recognized, and a path established to compensate them.

Tobacco industry jobs in future Cuba

Conversations at the home of plastic surgeon Jorge Suárez Menéndez, the night’s host, continued amid anecdotes of how many of the families’ businesses were founded by immigrants, both in Cuba and the United States.

Gutiérrez’s great-grandfather, Nicolás Castaño Capetillo, arrived from the Basque Country to Cuba at 15 in 1851. He had no money when he arrived in Cuba, yet at one point succeeded in making transactions on the London Stock Exchange at a time when they were carried out by telegraph.

Christian Eiroa, who comes from a long line of Cuban tobacco growers, spoke of his grandfather, an immigrant to Cuba from Galicia. The family’s business was confiscated by the Cuban revolution as well. Eiroa said he visited his grandfather’s grave during a 2011 trip to Cuba with Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

Eiroa was born in Honduras and grows tobacco there, as did his father, Julio Eiroa.

“We are one of the few industries that can generate 40,000 or 50,000 jobs overnight,” Eiroa said of how he could help rebuild Cuba. “We are also one of the few industries that can bring foreign currency and tourism to Cuba.”

Cars and furniture

Lombardo Pérez, owner of the Metro Ford auto dealership in Miami, attended the meeting with his son, Lombardo Pérez Jr., the second in charge at the car company.

“It’s important that entrepreneurs have a major influence on Cuba’s recovery, especially those of us who have gained experience in the modern world,” said Lombardo Sr., who arrived in the United States at age 26 and started out as a car salesman.

Lombardo envisions opening a car dealership in Cuba, but his main motivation, he said, is to help young people understand how democracy and free enterprise work.

Julio and Luis Capó, owners of the furniture store El Dorado, which has 20 outlets in Florida, said their business roots in Cuba go back to their grandfather’s resourcefulness — he started selling cattle and trading horses for furniture in Pinar del Río, later founding Casa Capó, one of Cuba’s most popular furniture stores, which they then restarted in Miami.

“It’s not about money or ambition,” Julio Capó said. “The goal is to cooperate as much as possible with a people who need all the help we can give them.”

Julio Capó said his family is eager to bring their experience in furniture, sales, design and logistics to Cuba and to learn from Cubans on the island. “If you’re going to start a business there, both sides have to talk, like a marriage,” he said.

Freedom near

Activist Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, leader of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, a coalition of anti-government human rights groups based in Miami, said Cuba’s freedom is very near for two reasons: Cubans have been participating in citizen protests on the island for more than a month, and the U.S. government is firm in its objective to help Cubans.

“It’s time to remain united and insist on the liberation of Cuba, which means the removal of the Castro family and the Communist Party,” he said. He warned that if the current regime is allowed to remain in power, it would slide back to its old ways, as has happened in Nicaragua under the Sandinistas.

Among other business people at the meeting were members of the Valdés family, owners of the Pinecrest Bakery chain. The Sixto family was also represented by Richard Sixto, owner of Caribbean Paints in Doral; architect Rafael Sixto, and Julio Sixto, retired marketing director of Kraft.

Gutierrez, the Cuban landowners’ representative, said the goals for Cuban American business owners and entrepreneurs are clear, and he believes they are shared by people in Cuba.

“We want democracy and stability for Cuba. People there and people here agree on that.”

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