Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged before the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba that the regime has exhausted the margin to continue justifying the deterioration of living conditions without taking action.
"When the life of the people becomes so difficult, the primary duty of the Communist Party and the Revolutionary Government is not to explain the crisis better, but to change whatever needs to be changed to overcome it."
The closing speech of the Extraordinary Plenary was delivered on June 17 at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana and published this Thursday on the official YouTube channel of the Presidency of Cuba.
The session evaluated and approved a package of more than 20 economic and social transformations formally presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged in his remarks that part of the economic crisis facing Cuba does not stem from external factors.
"There are obstacles that do not come from outside or from blockages. 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 warned.
He also acknowledged that resistance as a strategy has reached its limit: "We owe our homeland to resistance, but today resistance alone is not enough. This time demands that we transform, produce more, unblock, listen more, make better decisions, and be accountable."
The reforms are structured around five areas: macroeconomic stabilization, transformation of the economic model, recovery of the agricultural sector, strengthening of cost management, and mitigation of social costs.
Concrete measures include the elimination of mandatory intermediation in imports and exports, the opening up to foreign direct investment in the private sector—including small and medium-sized enterprises—greater autonomy for state-owned companies, and the removal of general price ceilings.
The regime also announced the creation of the National Institute of Business Assets to separate state functions from business functions, the reduction of the number of ministries from 27 to between 20 and 21, and the possibility for Cubans residing abroad to invest on equal footing with other economic actors.
He also referred to the food crisis. "There is no sovereignty with an empty plate. The food of the Cuban people will be treated as what it is: a matter of national security," he stated.
The ruler promised to expand the provision of land for usufruct and to remove obstacles so that producers can directly import agricultural supplies.
In addition, he acknowledged that these measures 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 having postponed them. And that phase of postponement has to come to an end."
The PCC approved the transformations with the support of Raúl Castro, who participated via videoconference and signed the proposal document.
His message, read during the session, warned that "just as important as the approval of these transformations is their proper and timely implementation."
Citizen skepticism was immediate
Cubans reacted immediately to the approval of the measures on Wednesday. Phrases like "Does anyone believe them?" and "The same dog with different collars" circulated on social media.
The economist Pedro Monreal described the reforms as "late pragmatism" and warned that Cuba has "missed the train of the reforms of China and Vietnam."
The context surrounding the announcement is one of accumulated collapse: ECLAC projects a decline in the Cuban GDP of 6.5% in 2026, with a cumulative contraction of 10.3% in the two-year period of 2025-2026.
Power outages exceed 20 hours daily in some provinces, the sugar harvest fell below 150,000 tons —a historic low in over a century— and emigration surpassed 250,000 people in 2024.
The National Assembly has been called to an extraordinary session to ratify the reforms approved by the PCC, following the usual course of the regime: the party decides, the parliament endorses.
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