- Title: Cuba invites exiles to invest in businesses on the island
- Date: 17th March 2026
- Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (MARCH 17, 2026) (REUTERS) SECRETARY OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES, ALICIA BARCENA WALKING TOWARDS PODIUM AT PRESS CONFERENCE BARCENA DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SECRETARY OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES, ALICIA BARCENA: “Today we are celebrating that the 2025-2026 monarch season covered 2.93 hectares, a 64% increase from la
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Cuba Diaspora Economy Investment USA
- Location: VARADERO, MATANZAS AND HAVANA, CUBA
- City: VARADERO, MATANZAS AND HAVANA, CUBA
- Country: Cuba
- Topics: South America / Central America,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001464817032026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Cuba on Monday (March 16) extended an invitation to Cuban Americans and other exiles living abroad to invest in and own businesses on the island, saying the "doors are open" to a community that has traditionally agitated for harsh economic sanctions against the Communist government.
Cuba also said it was removing impediments to U.S. businesses to invest but noted that U.S. law still prevented trade and investment under the long-running economic embargo aimed at punishing the government in Havana.
"There are no limitations," Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, who also heads the foreign commerce ministry, told state television in an interview.
Cuba needs desperately to revive the island's collapsed economy, a predicament made worse by a U.S.-imposed oil blockade and sanctions that have led to extended blackouts and shortages of fuel, food and medicine.
The policy shift signals flexibility just days after Cuba acknowledged it had begun talks with the United States, and as Trump administration officials have told reporters privately the U.S. would be seeking an economic opening as part of any bilateral agreement.
The issue of allowing emigrants to invest in island businesses is a sensitive one for Cuba, which has long viewed an often hostile segment of the exile community with suspicion. Exiles have long been proponents of the trade embargo.
Cubans residing on the island have been allowed to open and operate private businesses since 2021, but nationals living off the island were excluded.
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