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The ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel concluded the XXII Congress of the Central Workers' Union of Cuba (CTC) this Saturday with a call for collective faith, stating on his social media that achieving the goals outlined at the event and the ongoing economic transformations "requires a deep willingness and conviction that we can indeed do it."
The message, posted on his X account along with a video titled Never will the restoration of capitalism in Cuba be our goals, summarizes the tone of the congress held on June 26 and 27 at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana under the slogan Reaffirmation of Resistance and Unity.
The event brought together 759 delegates: 198 in person and 561 connected via video conference from all 15 provinces, a hybrid format that the regime itself attributes to the energy limitations faced by the island.
The congress was called one week after the Central Committee of the Communist Party approved, on June 18, a package of 176 economic transformations organized into 23 strategic axes, which were then ratified in an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on June 19.
The measures include private banking, private currency exchange, a digital currency market, the removal of the cap of 100 workers for small and medium-sized enterprises, foreign direct investment in private businesses, and the gradual reduction of generalized subsidies, including the ration card that has been in place since 1962.
During his speech before the delegates, Díaz-Canel emphasized that the reforms do not respond to external pressures but rather to a sovereign decision.
He also denied that they represent a "capitalist drift," although he admitted that "more elements of private property, private production, capitalism, and the market will necessarily be introduced."
At the same time, he promised that power will remain in the hands of the people and not "the rich or the bourgeois," and he assured that the transformations will have "a focus on the most vulnerable sectors" and retirees.
"We are not just enduring; we are resisting creatively. The country is going to move forward, and beyond that, we are going to overcome," affirmed Díaz-Canel before the delegates, in a speech that the regime presents as an embrace of wealth creation, while millions of Cubans have neither food nor electricity to make it through the day.
The new Labor Code presented in Congress does not recognize the right to strike nor does it allow independent unions, maintaining the monopoly of labor representation in the hands of the CTC since 1961.
The rhetoric of resistance clashes with a devastating reality: 89% of Cubans live in extreme poverty, minimum pensions are around 3,300 pesos per month —less than seven dollars— and the basic cost of living exceeds 96,000 pesos per month compared to a minimum wage of 3,210 pesos.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) projects a decline in Cuba's GDP of 6.5% in 2026, the worst in Latin America for the second consecutive year, while economist Pedro Monreal warns that the collapse could reach 15%.
The U.S. State Department described the 176 measures as "superficial smoke signals," and the Trump administration maintains sanctions against entities linked to the business conglomerate of the Cuban military elite.
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