A group of wealthy and politically connected Cuban Americans in Miami is quietly drawing up plans for a post-communist Cuba, including proposals for a new stock exchange, emergency floating power stations, airport renovations, and billions of dollars in private investment.
Among the most prominent figures involved is Jorge Mas, the billionaire chairman of MasTec and managing owner of Inter Miami CF, who told The Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump once asked him how much it would cost to rebuild Cuba.
"We could invest multibillions of dollars in Cuba," Mas said he told Trump.
Mas estimated that repairing Cuba's deteriorated infrastructure and stabilizing its economy during the first three years of a political transition would require approximately $90 billion. He said raising that amount would be "child's play" for wealthy Cuban Americans and their associates if the necessary political and legal conditions existed.
The proposals remain private contingency plans, not an announced program of the Trump administration. The communist government remains in power, no transition has begun and there is no guarantee that one will occur.
Nevertheless, the preparations offer a glimpse into how some of Miami's most influential Cuban Americans envision the island after nearly seven decades of communist rule.
Mas, a close friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, chairs the Cuban American National Foundation, the exile organization founded by his father, Jorge Mas Canosa. According to the Journal, Mas is working with the Cuban American Bar Association on proposed legislation that could govern a transition between the current system and a democratically elected government.
The draft reportedly contemplates a provisional government lasting as long as two years while Cuba prepares for free elections. Other discussions have examined whether the country should temporarily restore its 1940 constitution while drafting a new governing document.
Juan Omar Sixto, an 82-year-old former tobacco farmer who leads the recently established Cuban-American National Chamber of Commerce, is overseeing another part of the planning. His group is developing blueprints for a Havana stock exchange and an investment summit intended to attract major corporations, banks and investment funds.
"We have waited for 67 years," Sixto told participants at a gathering in a waterfront Miami mansion. "We need to start."
Architect Willy Bermello is separately leading discussions about an estimated $8 billion renovation of eight Cuban airports. Bermello, who designed a proposed Trump presidential library in Miami, reportedly meets every two weeks with airline, airport-management and investment executives to advance the plan.
The preparations intensified after Trump repeatedly declared that "Cuba is next" following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January. Trump later raised the possibility of what he called a "friendly takeover" of Cuba and said Rubio was handling discussions at a "very high level."
"The Cuban government is talking with us, and they're in a big deal of trouble," Trump said in February, according to Reuters. Havana denied that high-level negotiations were taking place.
The urgency is also being driven by Cuba's worsening humanitarian and economic crisis. The country's electrical grid collapsed again on September 18, leaving millions without power. It was at least the sixth partial or nationwide grid failure since January, while some areas have experienced blackouts exceeding 30 hours, Reuters reported.
Cuba's aging generating plants, crumbling transmission network and shortage of fuel have crippled the system. The Trump administration's restrictions on oil deliveries have intensified those problems, while United Nations experts have warned that the measures are worsening conditions for ordinary Cubans.
The Miami plans are also drawing uncomfortable questions about who would control Cuba's reconstruction and who would benefit financially. A separate Guardian investigation described competition among Trump-linked investors seeking positions in Cuba's energy, mining, hotel, shipping and real-estate sectors.
