Miguel Díaz-Canel closed the VII Ordinary Period of Sessions of the X Legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) on Thursday with a speech in which he urged Cuban leaders to maintain "a high ethical conduct," amid a profound economic and energy crisis that the regime itself acknowledges as unprecedented.
The parliamentary session, held on July 29 and 30 at the Palace of Conventions in Havana, had an extensive legislative agenda that included the approval of the Agricultural and Forestry Lands Law, the Housing Law, the Labor Code, and the Law on the Organization of the Central State Administration.
This latest reform involved a reduction of central bodies from 27 to 21 and a cut of 92,000 positions in public administration.
The call to ethics is not new in Díaz-Canel's discourse. During the closing of the Fifth Ordinary Session, held on July 18, 2025, he had already referenced Fidel Castro's concept of Revolution to demand from the leadership: "Never lie or violate ethical principles."
This requirement is also formally supported by the Code of Ethics for the Leaders of the Cuban Revolution, effective since January 15, 2024, which mandates leaders to maintain austerity, reject privileges, act with honesty and transparency, and exhibit exemplary behavior even in the digital space.
Critics point out that this ethical discourse systematically reappears in contexts of corruption scandals or social discontent, without translating into real accountability or tangible improvements for the population.
In his closing remarks, Díaz-Canel also defended the 176 economic and social measures approved in June 2026, of which 120 would already be ready for implementation, according to the president, without any independent verification of that information.
At the same time, he denied that the reforms imply an opening to capitalism and presented them as a "refinement" of the socialist model, in line with the regime's usual language to avoid acknowledging the structural failures of its economic system.
The leader described the government of the United States as a "neofascist regime" and rejected claims that Cuba is "a colony" or "a nation in dispute," in a confrontational tone that contrasts with the seriousness of the internal issues facing the Island.
The ANPP also approved a statement condemning the U.S. policy towards Cuba and calling on the international community to prevent military aggression.
The context in which the parliamentary session took place illustrates the magnitude of the crisis: the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, appeared before the deputies to discuss the electricity crisis and attributed part of the deterioration to the theft of transformer oil, while the Electric Union predicted a record impact of 2,380 MW.
The 2025 budget closed with a deficit of 74.5 billion pesos, a figure presented to the ANPP itself during the session.
As in previous sessions, Raúl Castro participated via videoconference in the closure of the Seventh Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power.
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