Miguel Díaz-Canel announced on Wednesday that the basic basket—historically universal in Cuba—will no longer be distributed to the entire population and will be restricted to retirees, families with chronically ill children, and individuals in vulnerable situations, representing the largest cut to the rationing system since its establishment in 1962.
The announcement was made during the closing of the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, held at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, where the regime presented a package of more than 20 economic and social reforms.
"The basic basket (almost nonexistent) will be guaranteed to retirees, families with chronically ill children, and vulnerable populations," declared Díaz-Canel, framing the measure as a shift towards "targeted social protection" and the abandonment of the generalized subsidy model.
The ruler justified the change with an argument that the regime itself has avoided acknowledging for decades: "Social justice is built on real foundations, incomes with purchasing power, direct protection for those who need it most, and a national economy capable of producing more."
The announcement, however, has nuances since retirees, who paradoxically are the only ones to retain the benefit, have a minimum pension of just 3,056 Cuban pesos per month —less than nine dollars at the informal exchange rate— while the cost of a minimum basic basket (in the informal market) for two people in Havana reached 41,735 pesos in 2025, according to journalistic estimates.
Díaz-Canel also acknowledged that part of the crisis is due to internal responsibilities of the regime itself: "There are obstacles that do not come from outside or from blockades. There is slowness, bureaucracy, regulations that hinder those who want to produce, and decisions that we have postponed. What depends on us we must change ourselves, and we must change it now."
He also admitted that the reforms are not new: "These are not new ideas; they are decisions that the country discussed and approved years ago. The mistake was not in proposing them, but in postponing them. That period of delay must come to an end."
Among the additional measures in the package are the removal of general price caps— which Díaz-Canel himself admitted "in practice did not manage to contain inflation"— the opening up to foreign direct investment in the private sector, granting Cubans residing abroad the right to invest on equal terms, and reducing the number of ministries from 27 to between 20 and 21.
The creation of the National Institute of Business Assets was also announced to separate state functions from business activities.
The National Assembly has been called to an extraordinary session this Thursday with the aim of formally ratifying the reforms approved by the Communist Party, on a day that Díaz-Canel himself described as the beginning of an "emergency economic and social agenda."
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