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Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and member of the Political Bureau, published a message on his X account this Saturday proclaiming that “Cuba rises: Time for profound changes with social justice and sovereignty”, amid a day marked by protests with pots and pans, tire burnings, and blackouts across the island.
The tweet also echoes a phrase from Miguel Díaz-Canel made during the extraordinary plenary of the PCC on June 17: "To anyone who wants to build with Cuba, here is your home and the door is open. Because this Homeland, at this moment, has no extra Cubans."
The message is part of the regime's propaganda campaign to present the package of 176 economic measures —approved in an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on June 18— as a sovereign transformation rather than a response to the accumulated pressure from years of crisis and protests.
Díaz-Canel anticipated that interpretation by stating before the Assembly: "We are not doing this because of pressure from the Yankees," although in the same speech he admitted that "there are obstacles that do not come from outside or from the blockade", acknowledging internal issues of bureaucracy and administrative slowness.
The measures include the authorization of private banking for the first time in decades, private currency exchange, the removal of the cap of 100 workers for small and medium-sized enterprises, opening up to investment by Cubans abroad, reducing the number of ministries from 27 to between 20 and 21, and the gradual introduction of a value-added tax.
The economist Pedro Monreal described the package as "late pragmatism," while Elías Amor questioned its lack of clear solutions for inflation and the fiscal deficit.
The reality surrounding the official optimism is radically different. This very Saturday, casserole protests and tire burning were reported in San Miguel del Padrón and La Güinera, with additional protests in Carlos III and Santos Suárez, and internet outages in conflict areas in Havana.
In parallel, the Electric Union reported this Saturday a capacity of only 1,016 MW against a demand of 2,650 MW, with 1,620 MW affected.
The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,311 protests in May 2026, the highest monthly figure recorded, following 1,245 in March and 1,133 in April.
The slogan "Cuba rises" is not new in the regime's repertoire: it was used as a propaganda framework after Hurricane Melissa in October 2025, and Morales Ojeda himself employed similar rhetoric in April 2026 when he stated that "those who rise today with Cuba rise for all time."
The leader was sanctioned by the United States on May 18, 2026 along with 10 other high-ranking officials and three entities, under Executive Order 14404 signed by Donald Trump on May 1, due to their involvement in the repression in Cuba.
The independent media outlet Árbol Invertido described the climate on the island as follows: "Fire has become the language of protests in Cuba, a new language for Cubans to send signals in the midst of the unbearable night and blackouts. From the depths of a country sunk in misery, these luminous signals expand a message loud and clear: a yearning for freedom and a rejection of the communist regime."
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