Miguel Díaz-Canel closed the parliamentary session of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) this Thursday, promising Cubans that they will see improvements in their daily lives, but only "if we work well" on the 176 economic transformations approved by the regime.
The VII Ordinary Session of the X Legislature, held on July 29 and 30 at the Palace of Conventions in Havana, served as the first formal parliamentary assessment of the implementation of these reforms, approved in an extraordinary session on June 18 as the "economic and social emergency agenda."
The government announced that 110 out of the 121 measures scheduled for June and July have already been approved, which represents a progress of 90.9%; and acknowledged that they have "more elements of private property, private production, capitalism, and market."
Despite the market-oriented nature of the reforms, Díaz-Canel insisted that they do not respond to external pressures: “They are not adopted to please the United States,” he stated, describing them as “the result of a sovereign decision by Cuba.”
The contradiction between the official discourse and the actual content of the measures became evident during the parliamentary debate itself, when a deputy openly admitted that "even though it may seem like" capitalism, "that is what we are doing."
The package of 176 measures, grouped into 23 thematic axes, includes the opening up to private banking and private exchange houses, the conversion of state enterprises into joint-stock companies, the removal of the limit of 100 workers for small and medium-sized enterprises, the possibility for an individual to be the owner of multiple private companies, and the opening up to direct foreign investment in the private sector.
It also includes the elimination of price caps and an increase in the minimum wage in the budgeted sector, from 2,100 to 3,210 pesos per month, an amount that practically translates to just a few dollars at the informal exchange rate.
In the session this Thursday, the ANPP approved four structural laws: the Law on the Organization of the Central State Administration, which reduces the agencies from 27 to 21 —20 ministries and the Central Bank—; the Housing Law, which recognizes the right to own up to two properties and expands the role of the private sector in construction; the Labor Code, which incorporates concepts such as teleworking, digital disconnection, and multiple employment; and the Law on Identity and Domicile.
Additionally, the ANPP repealed Law No. 183 from December 2025, reinstating the municipal delegates' term to five years as mandated by the Constitution.
The context in which these reforms are taking place is the worst economic crisis Cuba has faced in decades, worsened by the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026, which deprived the regime of its main ally in Venezuela.
Díaz-Canel had acknowledged in July that the regime resorted to capitalism as a tool to tackle the crisis, although the official narrative insists that the goal is to "perfect" socialism, not to abandon it.
Promises of improvement reach a population that endures prolonged blackouts, widespread shortages of food and medicine, and an unprecedented exodus, while the regime calls for patience and ties any benefits to the proper implementation of measures that, according to its own lawmakers, bear all the hallmarks of the capitalism they have denounced for decades.
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