Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez reiterated the need for a “change of mentality” as the key to overcoming the profound crisis the country is facing. During the Extraordinary Plenary of the Provincial Committee of the PCC in Cienfuegos, the leader urged the members to take a more active role at the grassroots level and to be the first to promote national production.
“What's the role of activism in grassroots organization in all these matters we're proposing?” Díaz-Canel questioned the attendees. “If we claim that a priority is to boost national production, as we will be able to have goods and services based on what we can produce and provide, the first ones who need to be discussing this critically in the core are the activists. And the first ones who must take the lead in a productive or service center are the activists. Otherwise, it remains just a speech and it won't be achieved,” the leader stated during an address broadcast by Canal Caribe.
The meeting, shared on social media by the Communist Party of Cuba, was presented as a space for “deep and self-critical” analysis regarding the role of party activism in fulfilling national priorities. Díaz-Canel emphasized that the Party's work should focus on transforming “ways of thinking” and “modes of doing,” while acknowledging that not all of the country's problems are attributable to the U.S. embargo. However, the speech once again avoided concrete references to the structural causes of the crisis and did not propose any immediate impactful economic measures.
In another part of his address, the leader addressed priority tasks such as food production and the energy sector, emphasizing the need to strengthen the powers of municipalities to achieve greater autonomy. “The mindset that is needed,” he stated, “is how to go out and seek, how to think differently, always with the aim of pursuing prosperity. If the municipality is prosperous, the province will be, and the country will be too.” This notion, presented as an invitation to “think differently,” was described by the Cuban presidency as a “key to success,” although it did not specify what concrete tools municipalities would have to exercise that autonomy.
Díaz-Canel's insistence on a “change of mentality” comes at a time when the government itself acknowledges the seriousness of the national situation. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recently admitted that Cuba is facing “a war economy” and that 2026 will be an especially difficult year, marked by scarcity, inflation, and a decline in production. Despite this, both Marrero and Díaz-Canel continue to rely on ideological discourse and appealing to the activists' consciousness as the main drivers of change.
The President's message adds to a series of recent interventions in which he has urged communist militants to “be at the forefront in solving problems”, which have sparked a wave of criticism on social media, where many Cubans reproach the leader for his disconnection from reality. “The problems of Cuba are you, the communists; just by giving up power, they would be resolved,” one user said on the social network X, reflecting citizens' frustration at the official calls to resist without real changes.
While the Party's leadership insists that change begins in the mind, the majority of Cubans face a daily reality marked by power outages, food shortages, and a rapid deterioration of basic services. In this context, Díaz-Canel's call for a "change in mentality" sounds increasingly out of touch with the country's reality, where the issue does not seem to be mentality itself, but rather the political and economic model that he defends.
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