HAVANA, Cuba – In a bold move to counter the devastating economic impact of the long-running United States blockade, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced Friday a sweeping package of reforms designed to expand freedoms for small private enterprises across the island nation.
Delivering a nationally televised address to the Cuban people, Diaz-Canel outlined a series of policy shifts that will open more economic sectors to private participation, cut red tape for new business approvals, and level the playing field for domestic private entrepreneurs. “For non-state management models, the roster of off-limits activities will be narrowed to expand operational scope as widely as possible,” Diaz-Canel stated. “We have launched an urgent process to clear all pending business applications in the shortest timeline achievable.”
The reforms represent the latest in a series of liberalization measures rolled out by the Cuban communist government, which has faced mounting pressure after Washington tightened its oil blockade against the island in January. Private enterprise, which was first authorized with a 100-employee cap in 2021, has already emerged as a vital pillar of Cuba’s struggling economy. Earlier this year, private firms gained the right to import fuel – a sector that had remained under exclusive state control for decades.
Under the new policy framework, domestic private businesses will now be granted the same investment rights as foreign investors, a change crafted to shore up economic activity after multiple foreign firms exited the country over fears of U.S. secondary sanctions. Diaz-Canel also revealed that policymakers are evaluating the elimination of mandatory state intermediaries for private import and export operations, a change that would drastically reduce business costs and streamline cross-border trade for non-state actors.
Beyond private sector liberalization, the president reaffirmed the government’s commitment to decentralizing economic governance and granting expanded autonomy to state-owned enterprises, which still control approximately 80 percent of Cuba’s total economic output. He also announced a sweeping restructuring of state bureaucracy that will cut the number of national ministries and reduce the size of the public sector workforce. The restructuring plan is scheduled for parliamentary debate and approval in July, and Diaz-Canel emphasized that all new reforms would move through the approval process at an accelerated pace.
Despite mounting economic headwinds that have deepened long-running crises in energy, food security, and public welfare, Diaz-Canel struck a defiant and confident tone, pushing back against what he called Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Cuba. “The country is not paralyzed; we are confronting this challenge with intelligence and unity,” he said.
The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba dates back to 1962, making it one of the longest-running economic blockades in modern history. In recent years, successive U.S. administrations have expanded sanctions beyond the core embargo, including the oil restriction imposed earlier this year, which has significantly worsened the island’s chronic economic, social, and energy crises.