Amid the worst economic crisis Cuba has faced in decades, Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged on Thursday that the regime had postponed reforms for years that it now considers essential to prevent further deterioration of the country.
During the closure of the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, held in Havana, the leader defended a broad package of economic and social transformations and acknowledged that many of the announced measures are not new, but rather decisions previously approved that had never been implemented.
"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. This period of delay must come to an end," he stated.
The recognition was accompanied by another unusual admission in the official discourse. Díaz-Canel pointed out that part of the country's economic problems have internal origins and cannot be attributed solely to external factors.
"There are obstacles that do not come from outside or from blockades. There is slowness, bureaucracy, rules that hinder those who want to produce, and decisions that we have delayed," he declared to the members of the Central Committee.
The assembly approved more than twenty transformations proposed by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, aimed at easing various aspects of the economy.
Among the announced measures are the elimination of mandatory intermediaries in import and export operations, greater autonomy for state-owned enterprises, the reduction of central state administration bodies, the opening up to foreign investment in small and medium private enterprises, and the removal of limits on the number of workers that small and medium-sized enterprises can hire.
The regime also announced that Cubans residing abroad will be able to invest on equal terms with other economic actors and acknowledged the failure of some policies implemented in recent years.
«Price caps, in practice, failed to curb inflation. Many times, they led to the disappearance of products and a shift towards illegality,» Díaz-Canel admitted.
According to the leader, the authorities studied the economic experiences of China and Vietnam and used artificial intelligence tools to analyze proposals compatible with the Cuban political model.
Reforms are arriving at a particularly delicate moment for the national economy. The CEPAL projects a contraction of 6.5% for 2026, while the accumulated decline in economic activity since 2020 exceeds a quarter of the gross domestic product.
The economic crisis is compounded by prolonged blackouts, a sugar production at historic lows, fuel shortages, and a continued exodus of Cubans abroad.
The energy deterioration worsened further after the interruption of Venezuelan supplies, which for years helped sustain part of the national fuel demand.
In the session, Raúl Castro also participated via videoconference. The former ruler endorsed the approved transformations, although he warned about the challenges in implementing them.
"Equally important as the approval of these transformations is their proper and timely implementation," he noted.
The reactions on social media were marked by skepticism. Many users questioned how measures that have been discussed for years are now being presented as urgent solutions, while independent economists warned that the depth of the crisis could seriously limit the impact of the reforms.
Economist Pedro Monreal described the process as a case of "late pragmatism" and argued that Cuba today faces much harsher conditions than those present when other socialist countries initiated gradual reforms.
The measures approved by the Communist Party will now be submitted for consideration by the National Assembly, which has been convened extraordinarily to endorse them, following the usual procedure by which decisions made by the party leadership are subsequently formalized by Parliament.
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