Déborah Rivas Saavedra
Cuban vice-minister of foreign trade and foreign investment.
On 2 October 2026, Déborah Rivas Saavedra presented rules letting foreign commercial branches sell wholesale and hire Cuban workers directly without a compulsory state employment agency.
Last refreshed: 22 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
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Timeline for Déborah Rivas Saavedra
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Cuba DispatchBackground
Déborah Rivas Saavedra is a Cuban vice-minister at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, known as MINCEX. Her portfolio covers the state's rules for international commerce and foreign capital. An intergovernmental ECLAC delegate list also identifies her in that vice-ministerial role.
Rivas Saavedra represents MINCEX in public explanations of those rules and their application to overseas businesses. Her documented remit links international trade policy with investment policy. That role concerns the legal conditions for foreign firms, rather than the day-to-day management of those firms or any specific commercial branch. She is a vice-minister rather than the head of MINCEX.
Rivas Saavedra opens a direct-hiring route
On 2 October 2026, Rivas Saavedra presented rules allowing branches of foreign trading firms in Cuba to distribute goods wholesale and hire Cuban staff directly. Before that date, a state importer took their goods at the dock, while hiring ran through a state employment agency.
At the same 2 October briefing, she said all eight foreign-investment measures approved in June 2026 now had legal rules. She did not identify any company that had used the direct-hiring route by that date. For Rivas Saavedra, the measure put implementation at the centre of her vice-ministerial remit: the legal route existed on 2 October, while evidence of an adopter did not.
Who is Déborah Rivas Saavedra?
What did Cuba's October 2026 direct-hiring rules change?
Can foreign commercial branches sell wholesale in Cuba?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 22 October 2026. Editorial standards.