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The Cuban regime is preparing to establish a Ministry of Information and Social Communication as part of a comprehensive reorganization of the State that will reduce the government structure from 27 agencies to 20 ministries, according to the Draft Law on the Organization of the Central Administration of the State published by the National Assembly of People's Power, which is expected to be approved in the session of July 2026.
The new ministry appears as number 10 in the list of Article 19 of the project and is defined in Article 85 as "the body responsible for directing and controlling state policy in the area of social communication."
Its functions, detailed in Article 86, include managing the social communication system and its processes, controlling advertising and sponsorship, and—pointing to the issue that has generated the most concern— "proposing and endorsing, as appropriate, the creation, transfer, merger, and dissolution of the fundamental social communication media."
The ministry will also be responsible for "coordinating communication actions that contribute to the identity and image of Cuba" and managing the so-called Country Brand.
The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal was one of the first to publicly react this Tuesday, pointing out that the new scheme of 20 ministries presents underlying issues: "The idea of a 'ministry of information and social communication' borders on that of a 'ministry of truth'."
Monreal also criticized that in the new scheme, "there is an excess of information and social communication, and two are missing: the ministry of internal trade and the ministry of construction and housing."
The new ministry does not come out of nowhere: it is the elevation to ministerial status of the Institute of Information and Social Communication (IICS), created in August 2021 as a successor to the ICRT to centralize control over all state social communication, including digital media and social networks.
That transition occurred in the context of the July 11 protests of 2021, when the regime accelerated its information control framework.
The legal framework supporting the new ministry was already in place: the Law 162 on Social Communication, approved in May 2023 and in effect since June 2024, only recognizes state-affiliated media, the Communist Party, and mass organizations as subjects within the communication system, excluding independent press.
That same law prohibits the dissemination of information that could "destabilize the socialist state," both in traditional media and in cyberspace.
In November 2024, the IICS accredited the first social communication inspectors tasked with "controlling and overseeing" the information disseminated in the country.
In May 2025, a resolution from the IICS enabled the cancellation of website registrations without prior notice in cases deemed contrary to "socialist principles."
The new ministry will coexist with the Ministry of Communications, which retains authority over telecommunications, information technologies, radio spectrum, and cybersecurity.
The bill, which repeals Decree-Law 67 of 1983 and its subsequent amendments, will come into effect 60 days after its publication in the Official Gazette, allowing up to one year to complete the transfers of human, material, and financial resources among the affected agencies.
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