The Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz appeared before the Third Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power to present 176 proposals for economic and social transformations grouped into 23 strategic axes, in a context that the regime itself described as the most serious crisis since the Special Period of the 1990s.
In his speech, Marrero acknowledged that "the errors and shortcomings of our own have never been denied," but he immediately downplayed this by attributing the downfall primarily to the sanctions from the United States, which, he claimed, have disrupted the supply of fuel and the sources of foreign currency income.
The session featured the remote participation of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and the physical presence of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who, in closing the meeting, admitted that "Cuba, our beloved Cuba, is experiencing the most difficult hours of this century, and we have the historic responsibility to save it."
The package of measures includes reforms that for decades the regime itself rejected as incompatible with the socialist model: authorization of private banking and private currency exchanges, removal of the limit of 100 workers for small and medium-sized enterprises (mipymes), the possibility for an individual to own multiple companies, transformation of state enterprises into joint-stock companies, and opening up to foreign investment including Cubans residing abroad.
Private actors were also authorized to import and market fuels, foreign fast food franchises were allowed, the wage scale in the state enterprise system will be eliminated, and the number of ministries will be reduced from 27 to between 20 and 21.
Despite the extent of the measures, Marrero emphasized that they do not represent an ideological shift: "These actions do not constitute a capitulation, but rather a sovereign adaptation of development tools to the specific circumstances of the country."
To justify the shift, the leader referred to a quote from Fidel Castro in 1993, during the Special Period: "Life, reality, the dramatic situation that the world is experiencing, this unipolar world, compels us to do what we otherwise would never have done if we had had capital and if we had had the technology to do it."
The contradiction between the official discourse and reality has been pointed out by analysts and citizens: measures that the regime rejected for decades are now being presented as tools to preserve socialism, and widespread skepticism arose due to the lack of details and a history of unfulfilled promises.
Díaz-Canel acknowledged on Thursday that "there are obstacles that do not come from outside or from the blockade," admitting internal errors of bureaucracy and slow processes, and pointed out that "the mistake was not in bringing them up, but in having postponed them," referring to reforms that have been delayed for years.
The process was remarkably rapid: Díaz-Canel announced the reforms on June 12, the Central Committee of the Communist Party endorsed them on June 17, and the ANPP approved them just 24 hours later, at a speed that external observers deemed unusual for a system that has historically resisted any structural changes.
External analysts described the reforms as "partial," "incremental," and "insufficient," characterizing them as a "tactical readjustment" that does not unleash the power of the system or address the structural causes of the crisis, which has been worsened by an economic contraction of more than 10% since 2020.
On the same day of the session, the European Parliament approved a resolution calling for individual sanctions against Díaz-Canel and the suspension of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with Cuba in effect since 2016, with 283 votes in favor, 199 against, and 85 abstentions.
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