Economic and Social Transformations presented to Cuban Parliament
To evaluate proposals for economic and social transformations, a topic of vital importance for the future of the country, the Third Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), in its 10th Legislature, was held on June 18th.
The meeting, taking place in its usual venue at the Convention Palace with deputies from Havana and those residing in the capital due to their responsibilities, as well as all deputies from across the country connected digitally, includes the participation—via teleconference—of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.
Also present in the room was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez. The president of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State, Esteban Lazo Hernández, commemorated Vilma Espín Guillois, heroine of the Cuban Revolution, who died on this date 19 years ago.
THE PRIME MINISTER REPORTS TRANSFORMATIONS OF STRATEGIC IMPACT IN THE CUBAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MODEL
In the most complex context that the country has faced since the special period, the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, appeared before the ANPP to present transformations of strategic impact in the Cuban economic and social model, conceived as a sovereign exercise to preserve the conquests of the Revolution without renouncing socialism.
During his speech, the Head of Government contextualized the current situation: an unprecedented combination of coercive measures by the United States government, which has come to interrupt the supply of fuel and sources of foreign currency income, significantly affecting the stability of the energy infrastructure and the quality of life of the population.
He also recognized that his own errors and insufficiencies have never been denied, but he stressed that this set of factors has had a sustained impact on the implementation of the transformations approved since the 6th Congress of the Party in 2011, whose positive results were maintained until mid-2019, when the sanctions policy was intensified, reinforced at the beginning of January 2025.
In this scenario, the Party and the Government, in the legitimate exercise of their sovereignty, have promoted measures to reactivate the economy and correct distortions, a process strengthened with the approval of the Government’s Economic and Social Program, validated by the people through popular consultation.
Taking popular sentiment as a direct reference, the Prime Minister announced transformations that find their first foundation in the thoughts of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz who, in 1993, in the middle of the special period, warned: “Life, reality, the dramatic situation that the world is experiencing, this unipolar world, forces us to do what otherwise we would never have done if we had had capital and if we had had the technology to do it.”
Under the guiding principle of doing what is necessary to preserve what is essential, the proposed measures include expanding the participation of all economic actors on equal terms, promoting foreign investment and admitting market mechanisms as an instrument for resource allocation. These actions – he emphasized – do not constitute a surrender, but rather the sovereign adaptation of the development instruments to the specific circumstances of the country.
The Prime Minister recalled the premises of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz in leading the update of the economic and social model: not to be dogmatic or immobile, to banish the mechanical association between socialism and egalitarianism, and to recognize that socialist planning does not exclude, but must incorporate and regulate the rules of the market.
