HAVANA, June 18, 2026 – Standing at a defining crossroads for the Cuban nation, President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, laid out an ambitious, urgent agenda of economic and social transformation during the closing address of the party’s Extraordinary Plenary Session. Held at Havana’s Palace of Revolution on June 17, 2026 – the year marking the centennial of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro Ruz’s birth – the speech framed the reforms as a necessary response to decades of escalating pressure from the United States, paired with long-overdue domestic adjustments to lift the Cuban people out of crisis.
Díaz-Canel opened by anchoring the moment in Cuba’s revolutionary legacy, paying tribute to Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, whose lifelong emphasis on party unity and ideological steadfastness has guided the nation through decades of challenge. He painted a stark picture of Cuba’s current context, describing the intensified U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade as a relentless, genocidal campaign that has inflicted catastrophic harm on daily life across the island. Beyond traditional sanctions, he highlighted the spurious 2021 designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, sweeping new executive orders that have internationalized the blockade via secondary sanctions, and a coordinated campaign of ideological disinformation spread through social media to erode public trust in the revolution.
Against a backdrop of shifting global geopolitics marked by rising hegemonic aggression, erosion of multilateralism and growing global tensions, Díaz-Canel emphasized that the bloc’s decades-long punishment has pushed Cuban families to the breaking point: every liter of fuel, every dose of medicine, every staple food item now carries an extreme markup from financial persecution, while widespread energy shortages disrupt every corner of daily life. “Reality demands urgent and necessary changes,” he stressed. “When life for the people becomes so difficult, the primary duty of the Communist Party and the revolutionary government is not to explain the crisis better, but to change whatever needs to be changed to overcome it.”
The sweeping reform package, months in the making, draws on input from across Cuban society: public consultations on the 2026 Economic and Social Program, contributions from the National Association of Cuban Economists (ANEC), decades of updated policy guidance from previous party congresses, and even studies of socialist construction experiences in China and Vietnam, with artificial intelligence leveraged to evaluate proposals against existing Cuban regulatory frameworks. Díaz-Canel emphasized that the core goal of the changes is not to abandon socialism, but to strengthen it: the transformations will advance social justice, generate new national wealth and distribute that wealth equitably – rejecting abstract egalitarianism in favor of tangible, material progress for all Cubans.
“Without wealth, there is nothing to distribute; we would be speaking of social justice in the abstract,” he argued. “Either we produce under these conditions, create wealth, and then distribute it with social justice and equity – that is the challenge.”
To meet that challenge, Díaz-Canel outlined progress across five simultaneous core priorities: macroeconomic stabilization and recovery of foreign revenue, transformation of Cuba’s outdated economic and social model, agricultural sector revitalization, strengthened accounting and cost management, and proactive mitigation of social costs tied to reform.
Key structural changes include a fundamental reorientation of central planning: instead of micromanaging day-to-day economic activity, the state will focus on building a clear, stable regulatory environment that empowers enterprises and workers to produce efficiently and innovate. State-owned enterprises, which remain the foundational pillar of Cuba’s economy, will gain genuine operational autonomy, with separation of state regulatory functions and business management, and a new “comply or explain” framework to eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to growth. The National Institute of Business Assets will oversee state assets, hold management accountable for results, and ensure transparency.
Food security, Díaz-Canel declared, is a matter of national sovereignty: “No one has sovereignty with empty plates.” To end chronic food shortages, Cuba will eliminate all idle arable land, expanding land usufruct rights to individual producers, cooperatives, and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) while retaining public ownership of land. Any underutilized plot overgrown with invasive marabou will be reallocated to producers willing to put it to work. Farmers will gain direct access to foreign currency to import critical inputs like seeds and fertilizer, and will be able to earn market-aligned prices for their output, turning agricultural work into a path to prosperity rather than hardship.
On trade and investment, Cuba will eliminate mandatory intermediation for direct imports and exports for both state and non-state enterprises, opening new avenues for productive and export-led growth. The government will pursue targeted debt restructuring, including debt-for-assets swaps that preserve Cuban ownership of strategic assets, as well as debt-for-nature and debt-for-development swaps. The list of activities prohibited to the private sector will be radically overhauled, replacing most outright bans with targeted, responsible regulation, and bureaucratic hurdles for MSME formation and public-private partnerships will be streamlined. Critically, Cuba will open the door to foreign direct investment in domestic private enterprises including MSMEs, with clear rules for ownership, profit repatriation and dispute resolution. Cuban emigrants seeking to invest, donate or launch projects in their homeland will be welcomed with a transparent, stable framework, with no suspicion cast on those who want to contribute to national development.
Energy, a source of daily crisis for Cuban households, will be another top policy priority. Díaz-Canel framed widespread blackouts not as a technical challenge, but as a humanitarian one: “A power outage is the child who couldn’t study for a test, the food that went bad in the refrigerator, the elderly person who spends the night awake, restless, and sweltering.” To rapidly expand clean energy access, Cuba will eliminate all import tariffs and sales taxes on solar technology, energy storage and efficiency equipment, and cut out intermediaries that drive up costs for consumers. New credit mechanisms will bring solar installations within reach of households, MSMEs, clinics, schools and nursing homes, creating new domestic jobs for Cuban technicians and companies. Major incentives will be offered for electric transportation powered by renewables, with expedited licensing for electric taxis and mobility services, prioritizing investment in tourist hubs, urban centers and productive zones.
To address the gap between stagnant incomes and rising living costs, Díaz-Canel announced an end to broad, ineffective blanket price caps, which have repeatedly led to shortages and expanded black markets. Instead, the government will shift from product subsidies to direct, targeted support for vulnerable populations, guaranteeing the basic food basket for retirees, families with chronically ill children and low-income households. The country will move progressively to a creditable value-added tax system paired with universal electronic invoicing to eliminate cascading taxation and reduce tax evasion, while the banking system will be thoroughly modernized to reduce bureaucracy, open space for regulated private and foreign financial participation, and streamline transactions ranging from pension payments to remittances to business investment.
Digital transformation and artificial intelligence will be deployed as cross-cutting tools to boost productivity across every sector, from agriculture to healthcare to tax administration. In the tourism and real estate sectors, new flexible business models will open idle state-owned properties to leasing and development by state, private, cooperative and mixed entities. Wage barriers that push skilled talent out of strategic sectors will be eliminated, allowing variable performance-based pay in both local and foreign currency tied to measurable results.
Díaz-Canel stressed that all reforms will be implemented gradually, with pilot testing, continuous adjustment, and clear accountability: every measure will have a designated leader, a fixed deadline, and public performance metrics. Decisions that work will be scaled up; those that fail will be corrected immediately; officials unable to meet the demands of the moment will step aside for those who can deliver results.
Beyond economic reform, Díaz-Canel announced new initiatives to empower young Cubans, launching a national Community Youth Network that will give young people skills, resources and real opportunities to launch projects, revitalize their neighborhoods, create local jobs and build futures in Cuba rather than leaving to seek opportunity abroad.
Addressing the Cuban people directly, he emphasized that resistance alone is no longer enough: decades of blockade have caused immense suffering, but the country must also address internal barriers including bureaucracy, sluggishness and delayed decisions. “To govern is to solve problems, remove obstacles, provide support, and ensure that decisions translate into real improvements,” he said. “What we intend to set in motion is an emergency economic and social agenda… some will not enjoy unanimous consensus, but they cannot be postponed.”
Díaz-Canel closed by tying the reform effort to Cuba’s centuries-long struggle for sovereignty, invoking the legacy of Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and all the revolutionary heroes who led the nation through past crises. On the centennial of Fidel Castro’s birth, he said, the greatest tribute to the revolution’s founders is to preserve its core commitment to social justice while adapting to meet the challenges of the present. “Nothing will be impossible if we embrace the challenge as an opportunity and history as inspiration,” he said. “We are all called to action, and together we will prevail.”
The address concluded with resounding cheers for a free, sovereign Cuba, and the iconic revolutionary rallying cry: “Socialism or Death! Fatherland or Death! We will prevail!”
