The Cuban deputy Yusuam Palacios surprised everyone this Friday during the Third Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) by stating that the revolution can also be saved with the "rich," in an intervention broadcast live on Canal Caribe from the Palace of Conventions in Havana.
The session was called to discuss and support a package of 176 economic transformation measures presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, in the context of the worst crisis Cuba has faced since the Special Period of the 1990s.
Palacios, a representative for the municipality of Sagua de Tánamo in Holguín, argued that the homeland and Cuban socialism can be saved "with all the men and women, with the educated and those who may not be as educated, with the Cubans who are in Cuba, and with those who are outside as well."
Then came the phrase that caught attention: "with the poor, and with those who today might even, and let us not shy away from the word, call themselves rich, but only as long as they are worthy, only as long as they adhere to the first law of our Republic, the Cuban commitment to the full dignity of man."
The explicit mention of the "rich" as part of those who can save the revolution is unusual in the official Cuban discourse, which for decades defined its identity as a cause exclusively for and by the humble.
Palacios attempted to anchor his argument in the figure of José Martí and in the centenary of Fidel Castro, which the regime will commemorate in 2026: "Our essence, as a revolution, as socialism, lies in Martí and in Fidel; one, the teacher, the spiritual guide of the nation, cast his lot with the poor of the earth; his greatest disciple, who turns 100 years old [...] Fidel always told us, and it must be so, that our revolution is for the humble, by the humble, and of the humble."
The tension between this stated legacy and the reforms debated in the same session is evident: among the 176 measures is the authorization of private banking institutions—unprecedented since 1959—the creation of private currency exchange houses, the removal of the 100-worker limit for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and the transformation of state companies into joint-stock commercial companies with the participation of individuals and non-state actors.
Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged during the Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party: "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." And before the ANPP, he insisted: “We are not renouncing socialism”.
Palacios is not an unfamiliar figure in Cuban social media. In April 2026, a speech of his at the Patria Colloquium sparked widespread ridicule and comparisons to Cantinflas, and in January 2023 he was dismissed as president of the Martiano Youth Movement, although he retained his parliamentary seat.
The extraordinary session featured the remote participation of Army General Raúl Castro and the physical presence of Díaz-Canel, in what the regime presents as the greatest economic reform effort in decades, framed within the year it proclaimed as the "Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz," with celebrations culminating on August 13, 2026.
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