The Cuban regime published on Tuesday in the Official Gazette the Decree 160, a regulation that replaces the uniform list of prohibited activities for the private sector with differentiated regulations based on the type of economic actor, marking the largest reorganization of these restrictions since the legalization of private mipymes in 2021.
The decree, on July 22 and published in Official Gazette No. 62 Ordinary, repeals Decree 107 from August 2024, which established a list of 125 prohibited activities for private small and medium-sized enterprises, non-agricultural cooperatives, and self-employed workers.
The new decree completely eliminates the prohibitions on 46 activities and modifies 35 others from the previous list, leaving a total of 124 restrictions over a universe of more than 2,000 possible activities from the National Classification of Economic Activities.
The main novelty of the Decree 160 is the introduction of four categories of restriction instead of a uniform prohibition for all non-state actors.
The official text itself justifies the change: "The approved Economic and Social Transformations necessitate replacing the homogeneous list with a differentiated regulation by type of economic actor, which clearly distinguishes between unauthorized activities, conditioned activities, or those that can be authorized."
The four categories are: absolute prohibition on activities that pose an unregulatable risk; activities reserved for the State due to sovereign functions or critical infrastructure; activities prohibited only for self-employed workers but permissible for private companies and cooperatives; and authorized or conditioned activities, which may be undertaken with prior licensing or certification.
Among the activities that are being opened or relaxed are pharmaceutical services, residences for the elderly, wholesale commerce, direct imports of mopeds and electric cars, electricity generation from renewable sources, and the operation of gas stations.
The extraction of crude oil and natural gas is classified as an authorized activity through an administrative concession, while the fishing of protected or endangered species remains a .
The decree also includes a provision that requires non-state actors who rent homes or spaces to individuals residing abroad to report the identification details of the tenant and their companions to the Ministry of the Interior.
The regulation is part of the 176 economic and social measures announced by Marrero Cruz before the National Assembly on June 18, 2026, which also removed the limit of 100 workers for small and medium-sized enterprises (mipymes) and allowed an individual to own more than one private company.
In July, the elimination of the limit on hectares in usufruct and the suspension of the 5,000 pesos cap on payments among economic actors were also approved, measures that are part of the same reform process.
The Decree 160 comes into effect on August 4, 2026, seven days after its publication, and the Council of Ministers must review it at least every two years at the proposal of the National Institute of Non-State Economic Actors.
However, Cubans maintain a deep skepticism about whether these reforms will have any real impact, given the history of announcements without effective implementation amid a crisis characterized by prolonged blackouts, fuel shortages, and rampant inflation.
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