标签： Cuba

On July 30, 2026, amid the nation’s commemoration of the ‘Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz’, Cuban President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez delivered a landmark closing address to the 7th Ordinary Session of the 10th Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power, opening with a tribute to revolutionary icon Ramiro Valdés Menéndez that framed the nation’s current struggle against external aggression.

Díaz-Canel honored Valdés, a founding member of Cuba’s parliamentary system since 1976 and a core figure of the revolutionary Centennial Generation, as a living paragon of the ethical and patriotic legacy left by Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and other revolutionary leaders. Echoing José Martí’s famous maxim that ‘all the glory of the world fits into a grain of corn’, he highlighted Valdés’ lifelong commitment to revolutionary unity and unwavering resistance to imperialism, noting that his example remains a critical inspiration for Cuba as it confronts unprecedented modern challenges.

The president painted a stark portrait of the global and domestic context facing Cuba in 2026, describing the months since the December 2025 assembly session as a period marked by an ‘extremely complex and threatening scenario’ that has left the nation functioning as a ‘besieged fortress’. Pointing to the January 2026 military intervention in Venezuela and the deepening crisis in Gaza, he warned that the current U.S. administration’s neo-fascist policies mirror the expansionist horrors of 20th-century German fascism, with rising xenophobia, cult of personality, ideological repression, and resource plundering threatening global order and peace. He drew particular attention to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where UN estimates place the death toll between 75,000 and 90,000, 60% of them women and children, with nearly 2 million people displaced into a tiny 35 to 40 square kilometer strip, creating unsustainable conditions for basic survival.

Díaz-Canel emphasized that this pattern of aggression is now being directly applied to Cuba, where a U.S.-enforced energy and economic blockade has pushed the Cuban people’s suffering to levels incompatible with basic modern needs. He detailed that a January 2026 executive order from the U.S. president threatens third countries with sanctions for supplying fuel to Cuba, a measure that has left Cuba receiving just one fuel shipment in seven months. The resulting energy crisis has stripped the national electrical grid of 1,400 megawatts of daily generation capacity, extending blackouts that have crippled water access, disrupted agricultural planting and harvesting, paralyzed industrial production, damaged the critical tourism sector, and put patients at risk in hospitals and intensive care units. All imports – from medical supplies and food to power plant repair parts and private sector raw materials – face months of delays in international ports due to U.S. threats against shipping companies. Cuban medical collaboration, a key source of revenue for the nation’s universal public healthcare system, is also targeted with false claims, worsening shortages of critical medical supplies.

Additional May 2026 secondary sanctions targeting any foreign individual or company doing business with Cuba have created the most extensive effort to cut off the small island nation’s economy from the global community in modern history. Díaz-Canel rejected the U.S. denial of the energy embargo and its false claims of providing aid to Cubans, noting that the cumulative cost of the decades-long blockade now exceeds $150 billion, a harm that touches every aspect of daily life. He highlighted that the international community has overwhelmingly condemned the policy, with the United Nations General Assembly voting 136-9 in July 2026 to reject the U.S. attempt to block debate on the blockade. He also recognized the growing opposition to the blockade within the U.S. itself, from honest members of Congress to long-standing solidarity organizations including The People’s Forum, Pastors for Peace, and Code Pink, expressing confidence that the American people, once informed of the truth, will stand on the side of justice.

Against this backdrop of external aggression, Díaz-Canel outlined Cuba’s sovereign plan for domestic economic and social transformation, rooted in the nation’s long-standing commitment to socialist construction and adapted to meet current challenges. Drawing parallels to the Special Period economic crisis, he explained that 176 targeted reform measures have been developed in line with the 2011 Party Congress policy guidelines and shaped by popular input from thousands of community assemblies held across the country ahead of the December 2025 parliamentary approval of the government program. He acknowledged legitimate public concerns about private capital growth, wealth concentration, potential privatization, inequality, corruption, and the ideological impact of capitalist relations, stressing that the reforms are not designed to advance capitalism, but to strengthen socialism that puts human needs at its center.

As of the address, 120 of the 176 measures are ready for implementation, prioritized to unlock productive forces, strengthen both state and non-state business sectors, expand municipal autonomy, increase domestic supply of goods, improve wage-price balance, boost export earnings, and attract foreign investment through structured partnerships between state, private, and cooperative sectors. Five core supporting regulations have already been approved by the National Assembly, providing legal certainty for all actors. Díaz-Canel stressed that the reforms are a sovereign decision, not a concession to the United States, and that key public sectors including health, education, science, and culture will remain fully public, free, and universal, with reforms focused on generating resources to improve their quality rather than privatizing them.

He emphasized that successful implementation depends on deepening popular participation, decentralizing economic authority to provincial and municipal levels, breaking bureaucratic inertia, combating corruption, and ensuring that economic growth goes hand in hand with social recovery that prioritizes vulnerable populations. ‘Economic efficiency must serve social justice, which encapsulates much of the meaning of the Revolution and its commitment to the people,’ he stated.

Díaz-Canel also highlighted grassroots progress already underway across Cuban communities: growing adoption of renewable energy by state and private entities, private and public partnerships to deliver water and collect solid waste, collaborative solutions to cash flow gaps for worker and retiree payments, and improved support for the Family Care System and 32 other social assistance programs, all driven by collective solidarity at the local level. He acknowledged the ongoing intensity of daily hardship, but praised the tireless work of Party, state, military, and community organizers who have worked around the clock to support the population.

Turning to regional and global geopolitics, Díaz-Canel warned that the current U.S. regime has put Cuba under explicit military threat, spreading false claims that the small island poses a threat to U.S. national security to manufacture a pretext for aggression. He reaffirmed Cuba’s commitment to peace and its willingness to resolve bilateral differences through dialogue based on sovereign equality, but stressed that the nation will not surrender its independence. He noted a growing shift toward extreme right-wing rule across Latin America and the Caribbean, driven by U.S. imperial pressure, that has reversed decades of progress toward regional integration and sovereign independence, even as Cuba retains the solidarity of regional peoples and progressive governments. He condemned new U.S. attempts to criminalize Cuba’s legacy of international solidarity and rewrite history, reaffirming that anti-imperialism and international solidarity remain core components of Cuban national identity.

Closing the address just days ahead of the centennial of Fidel Castro’s birth, Díaz-Canel celebrated the enduring legacy of the revolutionary leader, noting that ten years after his death, Fidel’s ideas continue to grow in influence across generations and continents, inspiring movements for justice globally. ‘Fidel lives and promises to continue fighting battles for a better world,’ he declared. He closed with the iconic revolutionary slogans that have defined Cuba’s resistance for decades: ‘Socialism or Death! Homeland or Death! We will win!’

In a formal address delivered July 30 at the 7th Ordinary Session of the 10th Legislature of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla issued a clear, firm statement: Cuba poses no threat to the United States, and has never sought to be an adversary or enemy of the northern power. The address, delivered before senior Cuban leaders including revolutionary leader Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary and President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and other top government and party officials, laid out Cuba’s perspective on the deteriorating global geopolitical landscape and escalating U.S. hostility toward the island nation.

Rodríguez opened by noting that President Díaz-Canel’s July 26 address already detailed what he described as the genocidal actions of the U.S. government against the Cuban people, and the July 7 United Nations General Assembly deliberations on the issue had already clarified global sentiment, reducing the need to rehash well-documented points. He praised the National Assembly, its Council of State, the International Relations Committee, and its deputies for their consistent, critical role in advancing Cuba’s foreign policy and expanding the country’s global ties.

The foreign minister emphasized that the international context in which Cuba’s revolution defends the interests of its people has worsened dramatically in recent years. He argued that the U.S. government has intentionally sought to dismantle international law, the United Nations Charter, and the 80-year-old framework of state-to-state relations forged after World War II, which was built on the core principles of sovereign respect and equality between nations.

Rather than abiding by these established norms, Rodríguez said, Washington has leveraged temporary coercive power to force its will on sovereign governments around the world, relying on intimidation, coercion, unilateral sanctions, and punitive trade measures to override constitutional and sovereign rights. He charged that the U.S. has resorted to unprovoked military aggression, unjustified wars, civilian bombing, the abduction of sitting heads of state, political assassination, state-sponsored terrorism, and both overt and cognitive unconventional warfare to achieve its geopolitical goals.

This behavior, he argued, is rooted in a dangerous doctrine the U.S. calls “peace through force” — a philosophy he traced back to the violent conquest, extermination, slavery, ethnic cleansing, and colonial domination that shaped centuries of Western imperial expansion. He drew parallels between this modern doctrine and the violent expansionist ambitions of Nazi Germany in the 20th century, the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, and contemporary U.S. efforts to redraw the geopolitical map of the Indo-Pacific, Middle East, and expand NATO influence.

In recent weeks, Rodríguez noted, the U.S. has revived the anti-communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era as official government policy, after decades of public condemnation of that period of political repression. He pointed to a hastily summoned summit of dozens of foreign ministers in Washington that was dedicated to launching a new campaign against what Washington frames as a “resurgence of far-left terrorism” — a vague new label that follows previous manufactured constructs such as “narco-terrorism,” which he reminded the audience was used to justify brutal U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorships and Operation Condor across Latin America in the Cold War era.

Shortly after that summit, the U.S. State Department released a sweeping report on Cuba that Rodríguez dismissed as superficial, factually inconsistent, and deliberately dishonest. The report, he said, attempts to frame Cuba as a unique security threat to the United States — a claim he called absurd on its face, given that Cuba is a small island nation facing the world’s largest nuclear military power. Beyond the inherent absurdity of the claim, he argued, the real goal of the report is to criminalize and suppress the widespread solidarity with Cuba that exists across multiple sectors of U.S. society. It also seeks to condemn Cuba’s longstanding support for global justice movements, including civil rights, anti-racism, anti-Zionism, anti-war, and anti-oppression causes, question Cuba’s inherent right to self-defense against imperial aggression, and discredit Cuba’s internationalist and humanitarian work around the world, including its historic efforts to oppose apartheid and support liberation movements across Africa. Ultimately, Rodríguez said, the U.S. labels Cuba a threat simply because it exists as a durable, dignified alternative to unregulated capitalism and imperialism that stands for global social justice.

Rodríguez recalled a 2021 statement from former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who praised Cuba’s 62 years of unbowed resistance to U.S. pressure as a historic feat, calling the island “the new Numantia” and arguing the Cuban people deserved recognition for their unwavering defense of national sovereignty. That example of independent resistance, Rodríguez said, is what the U.S. finds dangerous, amplified by the ongoing thirst for revenge from the descendants and allies of the former Batista dictatorship — a regime responsible for the murder of an estimated 20,000 Cubans, and whose allies included the mercenaries defeated at the Bay of Pigs, and perpetrators of terrorist attacks, biological warfare attempts, and efforts to draw the world into a nuclear conflict over Cuba. He drew a direct line between these anti-Cuban forces and 19th-century Spanish colonial general Valeriano Weyler, who oversaw a brutal reconcentration policy that killed hundreds of thousands of Cubans, and Lester Mallory, the U.S. architect of the blockade policy designed to “provoke suffering and despair” to overthrow Cuba’s revolutionary government.

Today, the U.S. — the world’s largest economic and military power — uses its aggressive posture to force compliance from many nations seeking to conduct their own domestic and foreign policy, Rodríguez said. This coercive power has allowed the U.S. to drastically escalate its decades-long economic war and collective punishment against Cuba, tightening a full energy embargo to strangle Cuba’s ability to trade with third countries and cut the island off from the global economy. Rodríguez rejected U.S. claims that no energy embargo exists, that Cuba previously received free oil, that the decades-long blockade is a myth, or that it does not violate the sovereignty of other nations — calling these claims blatant falsehoods.

While this scenario of escalating pressure is dangerous and unsustainable in the medium term, Rodríguez said, Cuba has no choice but to endure the growing destructive force of U.S. aggression. He echoed President Díaz-Canel’s recent warning that Cuba is currently fighting a historic battle, a “new Moncada” against a genocidal U.S. policy that seeks to suffocate the entire Cuban population to seize control of the country.

Even amid this pressure, Rodríguez emphasized, Cuba maintains broad, deep, and largely friendly cooperative relations with nations across the globe, built on mutual respect even with the small number of countries that hold political differences with Havana. Global public opinion overwhelmingly rejects the U.S. blockade, he noted: the 136-9 vote in favor of debating the blockade at the July 7 UN General Assembly, held despite widespread U.S. intimidation of member states, offers clear proof of where the global community stands.

Recalling the words of Cuban independence hero José Martí, Rodríguez noted that “Whoever rises up for Cuba today, rises up for all time.” Silence, indifference, or the pursuit of narrow self-interest in the face of U.S. aggression against Cuba endangers all of humanity, he warned: any nation could be the next target unless the global community acts collectively to halt this pattern of behavior. If U.S. citizens had access to accurate, unfiltered information about Cuba, he added, they would be able to stop the catastrophe their government is threatening to inflict on the island and the world.

Rodríguez echoed revolutionary leader Raúl Castro’s January 1, 2024 statement that the U.S.’s permanent hostility and blockade policy remains the primary cause of Cuba’s ongoing economic difficulties, a reality the U.S. spends millions of dollars to obscure. Cuban people understand full well that the U.S. is implementing a deliberate, step-by-step plan to cut off Cuba’s access to foreign revenue, global markets, technology, and essential supplies including food and medicine, he said. Since January 2026, this campaign has included a total energy embargo that blocks imports of fuel, electricity generation components, solar panels, and all related inputs and technology for power production.

Cubans also remain acutely aware that the threat of direct U.S. military aggression has not gone away, Rodríguez said. While it is difficult to imagine any plausible pretext for such a criminal, irresponsible act, the anti-Cuban lobby in Washington has shown no limit to its aggressive appetite. These are the same actors, he noted, that celebrate the suffering of Cuban people: a mother losing a child for lack of medical supplies, widespread blackouts, water shortages, uncollected garbage, and disrupted public transportation are all framed as policy wins for the anti-Cuba movement.

Rodríguez emphasized that the U.S. government is fully aware of Cuba’s consistent willingness to resolve bilateral differences through dialogue, based on mutual respect, and that Cuba has exercised extraordinary patience in pursuing diplomatic solutions. He noted that Cuba has even accepted a small U.S. offer of so-called “humanitarian aid,” despite widespread U.S. lies and manipulation, even though the total amount offered only covers five days of the economic and social damage caused by the U.S. blockade. The sum is even smaller than the aid Cuba receives from the World Food Programme — aid the U.S. has repeatedly tried to block. Accepting this aid from a government that is actively working to create a humanitarian crisis on the island demonstrates Cuba’s good faith, he argued.

At its core, the U.S. government’s true intentions are not revealed by offers of dialogue or token aid, but by its relentless coercion and determination to inflict maximum punishment on the Cuban people to force their surrender, Rodríguez said. He repeated his core message: Cuba is not a threat to the United States, and has no desire to be an enemy or adversary. Cuba’s core vocation is peace, a commitment demonstrated by its broad global relations and the 2023 Proclamation of Peace for Latin America and the Caribbean, signed by all regional heads of state and government in Havana.

Cuba’s only commitment is to the Cuban people, and its mandate comes directly from the full and absolute sovereignty of the Cuban nation, he said. Cuba has both the right and the duty to reject and confront aggression that threatens its people, and retains the supreme right to defend itself — including by military means — if it is directly attacked. Rodríguez reaffirmed that Cuba continues to aspire to a respectful, constructive relationship with the U.S. in the long term, and is willing to take steps toward that goal, but only on the basis of full, absolute respect for the sovereign rights of both parties, the standard that governs all normal relations between sovereign states.

Turning to the large community of Cuban compatriots residing in the U.S., Rodríguez said Cuba continues to work to strengthen ties with Cubans living abroad, expand opportunities for them to connect with their homeland and their families. Most government reforms adopted in recent years are designed to support this, he said, based on the shared conviction that Cubans living anywhere in the world can play a valuable role in national development, whether they contribute from abroad or choose to return to Cuba. Ongoing economic and social transformations are expanding these opportunities even further, he added.

Rodríguez closed by expressing profound gratitude for the widespread international solidarity with Cuba from all continents. He thanked governments, parliaments, international organizations, fraternal groups, social movements, political parties, business leaders, solidarity associations, civil society groups, intellectuals, artists, academics, and ordinary people of all political and ideological backgrounds for their unconditional humanitarian aid and support, and their rejection of the injustice being inflicted on Cuba.

Recalling a 1963 statement from revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, four years after the triumph of the revolution, Rodríguez repeated Castro’s promise that Cuba would continue to resist the imperialist blockade for as long as necessary, that the revolutionary flag would never be lowered, and that the Cuban nation would never bow its head. Today, on the centennial of Fidel Castro’s birth, Rodríguez reaffirmed Castro’s vision that a better world is possible — a world without cruel blockades that kill men, women, and children “like silent atomic bombs.” Castro’s vision of a better world built through revolutionary and progressive struggle continues to sustain Cuban optimism, and the certainty of eventual victory, even amid the extreme challenges the country faces today.

Closing with the words of José Martí, Rodríguez repeated that “before giving up the effort to make the Homeland free and prosperous, the South Sea will join the North Sea, and a snake will be born from an eagle’s egg.” He ended with the iconic revolutionary slogans: “Socialism or Death! Homeland or Death, We will prevail!”

HAVANA – The 7th Ordinary Session of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), the country’s highest legislative body in its 10th Legislature, entered its second day of deliberations on Thursday, July 30, 2026, with a packed agenda centered on updating the island nation’s legal framework and advancing core governance and economic priorities.

The session launched the previous day with notable participation across Cuban leadership: Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, joined the opening proceedings via video conference, while Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, attended the session in person.

One of the opening day’s first formal actions was the swearing-in of 10 newly elected deputies, who will fill vacant legislative seats representing municipalities across Cuba. The new representatives bring diverse professional backgrounds to the national legislature: Alejandro Redondo Ramos, legal director of the ANPP, takes office for San José de las Lajas; Rosabel Gamón Verde, Cuba’s Minister of Justice, will represent Jobabo; Asbel Quintana Siveira for Bayamo; Yoandry Águila Molina for Abreus; Yury Triana Velázquez for Madruga; Yudixa Sarmiento Rodisio, secretary of the Health Workers’ Union, for Pedro Betancourt; William Licourt González, secretary of the Agricultural Workers’ Union, for Consolación del Sur; Jorge Legañoa Alonso, president of Prensa Latina news agency, for Rafael Freyre; Zulma Pila Gálvez for Havana’s Regla municipality; and Elvis Norys Castillo Morales for Amancio Rodríguez. The appointments follow procedures laid out in Cuba’s Electoral Law to fill legislative vacancies.

Lawmakers also advanced a high-impact rule change on opening day, voting to repeal Law No. 183, enacted in December 2025 and officially titled the Law for the Exceptional Reduction of the Current Term of Office of the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power. The repeal reverses the previous law’s adjustment to municipal delegate term lengths, restoring the five-year term mandate written into the Cuban Constitution. Legislative officials confirmed that all municipal delegate terms will now proceed along the original five-year timeline, with scheduled elections for municipal delegates and national deputies set to take place in 2027 as planned.

Another central topic of the opening day deliberations was a progress update delivered by Manuel Marrero Cruz, member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister of Cuba, on the organizational rollout of national Economic and Social Transformations. The update, part of the 2026 Government Program, allowed deputies to review the actions implemented since the program’s approval and align on upcoming priorities for execution.

Deputies also received a briefing on the execution of Cuba’s State Budget for the first half of 2026, and formally approved the 2025 budget settlement report submitted by Vladimir Regueiro Ale, Minister of Finance and Prices, alongside a corresponding review report from the ANPP’s Economic Affairs Committee.

In additional legislative action on Wednesday, parliamentarians passed the new Agricultural and Forestry Land Law, introduced by Ydael Pérez Brito, Cuba’s Minister of Agriculture.

As the session continues Thursday, lawmakers are set to deliberate on four landmark pieces of legislation that form a core part of Cuba’s ongoing national initiative to update and modernize its legal system: the Law on the Organization of the Central State Administration, the new Housing Law, a revised Labor Code, and the Law on the Identity and Domicile System.

In a recent presentation to the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Tenth Legislature of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, Minister of Finance and Prices Vladimir Regueiro Ale delivered an updated assessment of the country’s 2026 state budget execution alongside the final settlement for the 2025 fiscal cycle, outlining both progress achieved and persistent challenges facing the nation’s fiscal framework. The core guiding principle of the country’s budgetary policy remains unchanged: protecting the social programs established by the Cuban Revolution while delivering on the macroeconomic stabilization targets laid out in the national Government Program.

Turning first to the 2026 mid-year performance, Regueiro Ale confirmed that early implementation of Law 181/2026, the 2026 State Budget Law, has produced better-than-projected results across several key economic indicators, though significant hurdles remain in the areas of tax collection, persistent tax evasion, and the timely execution of targeted public expenditure. A number of Cuban provinces have recorded particularly strong budget outcomes so far this year, including Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, Villa Clara and Camagüey, with most other regional territories on track to close out 2026 with positive fiscal balances.

Revenue collection to date has been primarily driven by broad-based tax compliance, but Regueiro Ale stressed the urgent need to more effectively mobilize resources that should be retained at the regional level to fund local development initiatives and underpin ongoing national economic and social transformation efforts. Strengthened fiscal control measures are already being rolled out across the country, the minister noted, but tax evasion and non-compliance remain major barriers to maximizing state revenue, requiring far more coordinated, decisive action from all responsible public institutions. Through the end of the first half of 2026, overall budget execution hit 93% of the projected amount for the period. Minor shortfalls are largely attributed to global and domestic supply chain disruptions that have delayed the delivery of goods for budgeted public activities, as well as missed targets for several government-supported economic plans, most notably in the agricultural procurement sector.

A large share of first-half 2026 budget resources has already been allocated to three core priority areas: financing strategic domestic economic activities, subsidizing residential electricity rates for Cuban households, and funding capital investments to restore national electricity generation capacity and other critical economic sectors. When preparing full-year 2026 projections, the Ministry of Finance incorporated the expected economic impact of recently approved national economic and social transformation policies, which are forecast to boost domestic goods and services marketing, revive agricultural output, and drive stronger budget revenue performance. At the same time, projections also account for increased fiscal pressure from two new policy measures: a partial salary increase for state-sector workers and a hike to the national minimum wage, both of which will contribute to a wider year-end fiscal deficit. Regueiro Ale confirmed that any necessary adjustments to the 2026 budget will be submitted to the National Assembly for approval in line with the requirements of Law 181/2026, as scheduled.

Shifting to the final 2025 budget settlement, Regueiro Ale reaffirmed that the year’s fiscal policy centered the same core priorities: protecting revolutionary social programs and meeting the government’s macroeconomic stabilization goals. The 2025 fiscal deficit closed at 67,642 million pesos, a result that beat official projections, driven by total revenues that came in 2% above target and total public spending that came in 2% below planned levels, demonstrating a new level of rigor in public financial management. Total gross revenue for 2025 reached 463,461 million pesos, with tax revenues accounting for 68.6% of all collected funds. The stronger-than-expected revenue performance was fueled by updated tax rates on fuel, cigarettes and tobacco products, as well as increased tax contributions from non-state sector economic actors, particularly from sales and profit taxes.

Even with this progress, the 2025 settlement report warns that persistent tax evasion and underreporting of income continue to erode the state’s ability to direct additional resources to high-priority social programs. Audits conducted by the National Tax Administration Office uncovered 12.056 billion pesos in outstanding unpaid tax debts in 2025, with 7.14 billion pesos successfully recovered, leaving 4.916 billion pesos still outstanding. The report also highlighted that a small share of taxpayers continue to underutilize mandated tax bank accounts, despite 98% of eligible taxpayers having activated these accounts as part of the national fiscal digitalization process.

In line with the government’s commitment to centered social spending, 64% of all 2025 public expenditure — totaling 518.543 billion pesos, 97.9% of the total annual budget allocation — went to four core social sectors: Public Health, Education, Social Assistance, and Social Security. More than 75 billion pesos was allocated to public health in 2025, funding more than 103 million primary care consultations, nine million specialist appointments, 23 million dental visits, over 825,000 hospital admissions, and supporting the procurement of essential medicines for the public health system. The education sector received 69.133 billion pesos, which supported a total national enrollment of 1.368 million students across all education levels, 266,198 university students, and funded critical infrastructure upgrades and learning environment improvement projects across the country. A further 11.845 billion pesos was allocated to cultural programs aimed at raising public cultural access and supporting accessible recreational activities, while 7.656 billion pesos went to the development of national sports and physical culture initiatives. For social protection, 2025 social assistance spending focused specifically on addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, including older adults, people living with disabilities, and low-income households, as a core tool to advance national social equity.

While acknowledging the significant progress made in both fiscal years, Regueiro Ale noted that persistent challenges remain: gaps in budgetary oversight, ongoing tax evasion, shortages of specialized economic and financial personnel, and unaddressed distortions in the relationship between state and non-state economic sectors. “Overcoming these limitations is imperative to enhance the intrinsic fiscal capacity of the Budget as a development tool,” the minister stated. Moving forward, he reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening fiscal discipline, improving regulatory and control mechanisms, and increasing the efficiency of public spending as core components of the national economic and social transformation agenda. Closing his presentation, Regueiro Ale emphasized that the Cuban state budget will remain an essential foundational tool to drive inclusive economic development, guarantee the long-term sustainability of core social policies, and advance the construction of a more just and equitable socialist model for the Cuban people.

On July 29, 2026 — a year marking the centennial of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz — Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz delivered a landmark address to the 7th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People’s Power (Tenth Legislature) at Havana’s Convention Palace, outlining the island nation’s rapid progress on sweeping economic and social modernization reforms even as it confronts intensifying U.S. economic aggression.

Opening the address by greeting senior Cuban leaders including revolutionary leader Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Communist Party First Secretary and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hernández, Marrero Cruz opened by detailing the acute challenges imposed by new U.S. policy. Since May 2026, the implementation of U.S. Executive Order 14404 has expanded secondary sanctions targeting any foreign individual or entity conducting business with Cuba, a measure built on the false pretense that Cuba poses an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to U.S. national security — a claim Cuba has repeatedly and fully refuted with evidence.

The new sanctions regime has inflicted multidimensional harm across Cuba’s economy and daily life, hitting critical sectors including energy, agriculture, tourism, finance, and public health hardest. Foreign trade has been particularly disrupted: major shipping providers have suspended service to Cuba, leaving thousands of containers loaded with food, medicine, solar energy equipment, and other essential goods stranded at regional ports, a disruption confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Oscar earlier the same day.

Against this backdrop of external pressure, Cuba has advanced the most ambitious process of economic and social transformation in the modern history of its socialist model, aligned with the 2026 national government program. Following the National Assembly’s initial approval of the reform package at an extraordinary session on June 18, 2026, leaders launched a broad consultation process to refine the proposals, incorporating guidance from Raúl Castro Ruz (who emphasized that successful, timely implementation with clear priorities and public participation is as critical as the reform’s approval), agreements from the Communist Party Central Committee Plenum, input from leading national economists, and 165 of 171 proposals submitted by sitting deputies. The updated, final version of the transformation framework was published on June 25, opening the door for direct public engagement.

To kick off implementation, Cuba’s Council of Ministers approved formal organizational guidelines, focused on designing supporting policy and legal frameworks, setting clear timelines and assigning institutional responsibilities. Senior government officials were appointed to lead reform across 19 thematic working groups staffed by leading experts and academics, while national, provincial, and municipal-level training seminars were held to equip party and government leaders with the tools to deliver results. Working with the National Assembly leadership, a compressed legislative timeline was developed to advance 138 new regulatory norms. To date, 110 of the 121 reforms planned for June and July 2026 have been fully approved (representing 90.9% of the stage’s target), with another five partially approved. The remaining reforms for this period will be finalized by the end of the week, with the most complex, high-stakes reforms scheduled for approval by September (except three set for November).

Breaking down progress across thematic reform areas, Marrero Cruz detailed that 28 of 31 reforms to the economic actor management model have been completed. A new Decree Law on the Cuban State Business System expands autonomy for state-owned enterprises, granting them authority to set internal salary structures, operate any legal commercial activity, set prices, make financial investments, manage employment relationships, and flexibly allocate profits. State enterprises are now organized into targeted business groups to leverage synergies and improve productive, technological, and financial outcomes, while requiring increased worker participation in governance, transparency, and accountability. Parallel reforms updated the national salary system for state enterprises, eliminating previous restrictions on custom salary structures and tying salary funds only to the enterprise’s actual economic and financial capacity, with trade union agreement required for internal salary frameworks — the most significant wage reform in decades, though unprofitable firms cannot access these new flexibilities.

For non-state economic actors, the number of approved non-agricultural micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives has jumped from just over 3,000 to more than 15,000. A new decree law regulates the creation, operation, and dissolution of MSMEs, private firms, non-agricultural cooperatives, and self-employment, cutting red tape, reducing approval timelines, and simplifying classification criteria. Decree 160, published July 28, eliminated full restrictions on 46 previously prohibited activities and partially lifted restrictions on 36 more, to better integrate the non-state sector into national development. These reforms are designed to unlock productive capacity and expand the supply of goods and services for Cuban citizens.

Other major reforms already approved include: updating the national economic planning model to increase flexibility, prioritize market signals and business autonomy, and decentralize investment approval authority (only projects exceeding 1 billion pesos require central government approval); restructuring the central state administration to separate state and business functions, reduce redundant administrative positions, with more than 92,000 unfilled administrative posts already cut across public health, education, culture, and sports, with remaining ministries scheduled to complete restructuring by September 2026; expanding territorial decentralization, granting 111 municipalities access to their 2025 revenue surpluses for local development projects.

In the energy sector, which continues to face acute challenges from prolonged blackouts that disrupt water access, food production, and economic activity, reforms have focused on expanding renewable energy capacity. To date, 1,464 megawatts of renewable capacity have been installed, representing 13.8% of national electricity generation. More than 4,292 state-led photovoltaic systems have been deployed across critical public facilities and isolated households, with an additional 11,000 systems installed in homes of vulnerable groups including children with chronic illnesses, labor heroes, and frontline professionals. Rules have been relaxed to allow MSMEs and foreign firms to import and sell fuel at wholesale and retail, with transparent price requirements, and new tax incentives have been introduced for renewable energy investments in public facilities and vulnerable households, including full tax deductions for qualifying investments and sales tax exemptions for renewable technology sales.

Agricultural reforms have advanced four of five planned transformations, including updates to the Agricultural and Forestry Land Bill that will open up land use and marketing for all producers, update cooperative governance, and introduce new production incentives. For social protection, a core cross-cutting priority of all reforms, national authorities have identified more than 876,000 vulnerable Cubans prioritized for support, and a new online application portal for social assistance through the Soberanía platform launched this week, allowing citizens to apply for support or submit applications on behalf of other vulnerable residents, complementing existing local government outreach. A national minimum wage increase to 3,210 pesos — covering all workers in state and non-state sectors with incomes below this threshold — took effect in July 2026 and will be paid starting in August, with an estimated annual cost of 42.5 billion pesos.

Reforms to the banking and financial sector have eliminated administrative barriers to opening foreign currency accounts, allowed non-state actors to deposit and withdraw foreign currency and make international payments for legitimate trade, eliminated the requirement for Central Bank authorization to open foreign bank accounts, and introduced new measures to boost digital payments: eliminating cash payment limits between economic actors, real-time transaction processing, eliminating cash deposit commissions, and raising the monthly transaction limit from 120,000 pesos to 2.5 million pesos. The first private exchange house is set to launch as a pilot project as part of broader exchange rate reforms. Tax system reforms have replaced existing sales and services taxes with value-added tax (VAT), reduced corporate income tax from 35% to 30% to encourage reinvestment, and introduced accelerated depreciation for new production machinery and equipment. Pricing reform decentralizes price-setting authority to all economic actors, with mandatory public price transparency and strengthened inspection to prevent abuse.

Foreign investment reforms have cut red tape, eliminated requirements for third-party employment of Cuban workers, streamlined documentation and processing times, and approved new policies for foreign investment in real estate, trade, and heritage conservation. Early outcomes already include 13 foreign-invested enterprises directly employing local workers, approval of the first joint venture between a foreign firm and a Cuban private MSME, nearly 200 authorized wholesale fuel distributors, and the creation of Cuba’s first special economic development zone for a fully foreign-owned health tourism project.

In the tourism sector, which has been brought to near-collapse by U.S. sanctions and fuel shortages, with 73% of hotel rooms closed and 25,000 workers on standby, and seven major international hotel chains (managing 46% of national room capacity) having exited the country, reforms have opened the sector to all economic actors, introducing tax incentives for ecotourism and specialized tourism, and allowing non-state actors to operate car rental, transportation, travel agencies, and guided tour services. Other completed reforms cover transportation (streamlining vehicle import and sales and incentivizing electric mobility), domestic commerce (creating new neighborhood markets and wholesale markets open to all actors), insurance (expanding foreign currency coverage and mandating third-party liability auto insurance), and the digital economy (allowing private sector operation of data center services under regulation).

Marrero Cruz emphasized that in just over six weeks since the reform package’s approval, the government has delivered on its initial implementation timeline with speed, rigor, and depth, enabled in part by data intelligence and artificial intelligence tools that allow real-time monitoring of all 176 transformations through a centralized dashboard. Moving forward, the government enters its most critical and challenging phase: ensuring effective on-the-ground implementation, monitoring outcomes, addressing gaps, and correcting deviations as they emerge.

Paying tribute to the Cuban people’s resilience amid prolonged hardship, Marrero Cruz reaffirmed the country’s commitment to its socialist model, citing Raúl Castro Ruz’s 2010 call to break with dogma and update the economic model to strengthen and develop Cuban socialism. “We are not deviating from our socialist model; on the contrary, we will defend it and adopt the necessary measures for its consolidation,” he stated, noting that the 2026 centennial of Fidel Castro Ruz reinforces the revolutionary leader’s call for Cubans to “emancipate ourselves through our own efforts” and defend socialism as the only path for the Cuban people.

Closing the address, Marrero Cruz led the assembly in traditional revolutionary slogans: “Long live the Revolution! Long live Fidel! Long live Raúl! Always onward to victory! Homeland or Death! We will prevail!”

In an official statement released on July 28, 2026, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a firm rejection of the recent announcement from Colombia’s incoming president, Abelardo de la Espriella Otero. On July 26, Otero revealed plans to shutter the Colombian Embassy in Havana and severe all governmental relations between the two neighboring Latin American nations, a move that Cuban officials say breaks sharply with the longstanding fraternal ties that have connected Cuba and Colombia for generations.

The Cuban government stresses that the planned cut to diplomatic ties is entirely without justification, and runs counter to the core national interests of the Colombian people. According to the statement, the proposed decision makes clear that Colombia’s next administration will subordinate its regional policy to the longstanding U.S.-backed agenda of division and confrontation between the two countries. The move also aligns with the most extreme, baseless strands of anti-Cuban politics that have emerged in Colombian political circles in recent years, Cuban officials added.

This break in bilateral relations stands in direct opposition to the vision of Latin American and Caribbean unity that the founding leaders of both nations fought to advance, a goal that communities across the region have sacrificed greatly to achieve. For years, Cuba and Colombia have maintained an open, productive bilateral relationship marked by meaningful progress across economic cooperation, cross-border trade, joint development initiatives and academic exchanges — advances that have delivered tangible benefits to citizens of both countries. Cuba has long prioritized deepening and expanding these mutually beneficial ties, the statement reaffirmed.

Cuban officials emphasized that the incoming Colombian administration’s unfounded hostile action does not reflect the true feelings of the Colombian people. For decades, Cuba has stood in unwavering solidarity with Colombians working toward a lasting peace via negotiated political settlements to the country’s long-running internal armed conflict, a commitment the nation will continue to uphold.

In line with the 2016 Colombian peace accords negotiated in Havana, Cuba will continue honoring all of its commitments to Colombian medical students currently pursuing their education on the island. The statement closed with a reaffirmation of the enduring brotherhood between the Cuban and Colombian peoples, noting that this people-to-people bond will outlast any political attempt to weaken it.

On July 28, 2026, a personal message from Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, a key leader of Cuba’s revolutionary movement, was officially released to the residents of Pinar del Río, following the province’s hosting of the national central ceremony marking the 73rd anniversary of the 26th of July Movement.

The historic assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, carried out in 1953, is widely recognized as the foundational event that launched Cuba’s revolutionary struggle, and the date is annually celebrated across the nation as National Rebellion Day. Each year, Cuba selects a host community to hold the main national commemorative event, honoring the ongoing commitment of that region to the values and goals of the revolution.

In his heartfelt message, Raúl Castro extended warm affection and formal recognition to the people of Pinar del Río, noting that the province earned the privilege of hosting the 2026 central act through the collective hard work, unwavering dedication to the revolutionary cause, and innovative, persistent labor of its residents. The message closed with a warm embrace to all people of the province, reinforcing the connection between revolutionary leadership and local communities across Cuba.

The message was accompanied by an official photo distributed via the WhatsApp Channel of the Presidency of the Republic of Cuba, and was first published by Cuban state media outlet Granma with full attribution to Raúl Castro Ruz.

On July 26, 2026, a date marking the 73rd anniversary of the 1953 assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks — Cuba’s National Rebellion Day — Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, took the stage at the main commemoration in Pinar del Río. The gathering fell in the “Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz,” carrying extra symbolic weight for Cuba’s revolutionary movement. Opening the event, Díaz-Canel shared a pre-recorded message from retired Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, who conveyed warm affection and recognition to the people of Pinar del Río for their tireless dedication to the revolutionary cause and the honor of hosting this year’s national ceremony.

Framing Cuba’s current struggle as a “new Moncada,” Díaz-Canel drew a direct parallel between the 1953 rebels’ risky charge against the Batista dictatorship’s barracks and today’s generation’s fight against what he called a genocidal foreign policy designed to suffocate the Cuban people and seize control of the island. He recalled that while critics dismiss the 1953 assault as a failure, that small spark of rebellion ignited the broader movement that ultimately brought the Cuban Revolution to triumph in 1959, echoing Fidel Castro’s core lesson that victory can emerge even from the greatest setbacks. He paid tribute to the legacy of Fidel, who famously declared in his historic self-defense trial that being Cuban carries an unnegotiable duty, and that abandoning that duty is an act of treason. Díaz-Canel also paused to honor the late revolutionary commander Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, a hero of the 1953 Moncada assault who passed earlier this year, marking the first National Rebellion Day since 1959 without his presence, calling for eternal glory to all who took part in the 1953 uprising.

Díaz-Canel explained that Pinar del Río was chosen to host the main ceremony not only for its measurable political, economic and social gains, but because those victories stand as a testament to everyday Cuban heroism amid profound national hardship. He highlighted a striking local statistic: an infant mortality rate of 4.8 per 1,000 live births and a full year of zero maternal deaths, achieved despite widespread power outages and acute shortages of critical goods — results he called the definition of revolutionary heroism. The province has exceeded national expectations in advancing the Cuban government’s Economic and Social Program, meeting economic plan targets and balancing the state budget, growing export earnings, cutting the number of unprofitable state enterprises, and boosting domestic food production through collaborative work with small producers, while streamlining the process of granting land usufruct rights, a top national priority. He also celebrated Pinar del Río’s iconic tobacco industry, a globally recognized symbol of the region and a key export earner, as well as the food sector’s growing successful partnerships with non-state economic actors. The local Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca University was highlighted for its commitment to tying scientific research and innovation directly to regional development, offering a model for other Cuban institutions. Despite widespread adversity, Díaz-Canel noted that Pinar del Río, a region with deep cultural roots and home to leading Cuban literary and artistic figures, has kept its cultural flame alive, protecting national heritage, expanding community cultural access, and delivering strong arts education outcomes as part of a collective effort to defend Cuban identity.

Turning to the international context, Díaz-Canel issued a fierce condemnation of what he described as escalating aggression from Cuba’s historic adversaries, noting that as right-wing and far-right forces gain influence across Latin America, the United States has ramped up unilateral sanctions targeting Cuban companies, public officials, and even private or foreign entities that trade with or invest in the island. He singled out the latest round of U.S. sanctions, which target Cuban public health officials and medical services, calling the move a new low in infamy. He compared U.S. State Department officials, who draft sanctions lists and invent pretexts for coercion, to medieval authors of repressive military edicts and Nazi propagandists during World War II, arguing that Washington acts as if the entire world is its colony, dictating terms under threat of punishment. Díaz-Canel argued that the U.S. has declared a global war on left-wing movements and positioned Cuba as a primary target, claiming that U.S. leaders scapegoat Cuba to distract from domestic inequality that has sparked protests from working-class and impoverished communities, while criminalizing legitimate dissent to sustain their harmful policy toward the island.

“Cuba is no threat to the United States or any nation on Earth,” Díaz-Canel emphasized. He pointed to Cuba’s decades-long history of global solidarity: sending doctors and teachers to regions where other powers send weapons, training thousands of young professionals from low-income nations around the world even amid its own hardship. Just this academic year, he noted, Cuban universities graduated 30,185 new professionals, including 735 from 62 foreign nations — among them 23 new Palestinian doctors and 5 American doctors. He argued that the true threat to regional and global security is not Cuba, but the U.S. policy of aggression that causes famine, mass impoverishment, uncontrolled migration, widespread instability, and tens of thousands of preventable deaths across the globe. He stressed that Cuba is the current victim of this campaign of economic suffocation, which is designed to provoke social unrest and install a government loyal to U.S. imperial interests, and explicitly denounced the six-decade U.S. blockade as a coldly calculated act of genocide.

Díaz-Canel laid out the devastating human cost of the intensifying blockade, detailing that the U.S.-imposed energy and financial siege has caused prolonged national blackouts that often last more than 24 hours, shut down industrial production, and left tens of thousands of workers out of work. He shared grim national statistics that tell the story of widespread suffering: preventable deaths from a lack of medications that Cuba once produced and distributed freely or at low subsidized prices; more than 100,000 surgeries delayed or canceled due to unreliable power and a lack of fuel for backup generators; more than 118,000 cancer patients, including 1,200 children, who are forced to use less effective second- and third-line treatments because they cannot access first-line care; and a national rise in infant mortality to 9.3 per 1,000 live births, up from 4 to 5 in previous years. Behind every number, he said, is a child who died as a direct result of the blockade and its genocidal intent. He noted that the United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly condemned the U.S. unilateral coercive measures as violations of international law, arguing that it is illegal and criminal to torment an entire people simply to force them to overthrow their government. The latest U.S. slanderous report claiming Cuban subversion, he said, is nothing more than a mediocre propaganda pamphlet designed to build support for potential military aggression, and he held all those who design, implement, and tolerate the blockade accountable for the suffering and deaths of the Cuban people.

Issuing a global appeal to the international community, Díaz-Canel warned that silence in the face of aggression against Cuba weakens international law and erodes the principle of national non-interference, clearing the way for future aggression against other sovereign nations. He drew a direct parallel to the ongoing crisis in Gaza, noting that global solidarity for the Palestinian people came too late for more than 70,000 Palestinians, including 21,000 children, killed by what he called a Zionist genocide that has turned the strip into mountains of rubble. “Defending Cuba from the cruelty of its executioners is not something that can wait,” he declared. He argued that defending Cuba’s right to sovereignty is a global fight against 21st-century colonialism, white supremacy, xenophobia, and hegemony, stressing that no nation is superior or inferior, and the old world order of emperors and subjects can never be restored.

Díaz-Canel expressed profound gratitude to the global solidarity movement that has stood with Cuba despite U.S. pressure, including social movements across Latin America and the Caribbean, human rights organizations that have denounced the blockade at the United Nations and other global forums, parliamentary groups that work to end illegal sanctions, European civil society organizations that maintain ties with Cuban institutions, anti-imperialist and pacifist movements, and blocs of Global South nations that share the belief that national sovereignty is non-negotiable. He specifically thanked all governments that voted for the annual Cuban resolution condemning the blockade and the energy blockade at the UN General Assembly, despite heavy U.S. pressure, and recognized the international solidarity groups present at the ceremony, including Pastors for Peace, Carlota’s Warriors from New York, the Australian Association for Solidarity with Cuba, the José Martí Cultural Association of Miami, and the Marcapasos project. “Your presence is living proof that we are not alone,” he said, noting that defending Cuba at a time of maximum pressure is an act of courage that exposes the hypocrisy of powers that claim to defend human rights but stay silent in the face of genocide.

Reaffirming that Cuba will never surrender, Díaz-Canel said that Cubans respond to the blockade’s suffocation with ingenuity, creativity, and the unyielding joy that defines the Cuban people, even in hard times. He echoed Raúl Castro’s 2024 call that unity is Cuba’s most important strategic weapon, stressing that unity does not mean uniformity — it means all Cubans, regardless of differences in approach, share the core goal of building a sovereign, independent, socialist, dignified, and prosperous Cuba that leaves no one behind. He noted that any fracture of national unity has always derailed the Cuban revolution in the past, making unity an non-negotiable priority.

While praising the heroism and creativity of the Cuban people, Díaz-Canel stressed that individual effort alone cannot break the blockade, making ongoing national economic and social transformation a top strategic priority. He explained that Cuba is pursuing a process of macroeconomic restructuring, strengthening all forms of productive management, motivating workers and farmers, and opening pathways for responsible investment, always guided by the sacred principle that change cannot come at the cost of social justice. He noted that the revolutionary legacy of the Moncada assault demands that Cubans not fear change, but any transformation must always be rooted in the pursuit of the highest possible level of social justice, and that all economic and political decisions will remain in Cuban hands, with no foreign power allowed to dictate the island’s future.

He noted that 2026, as the centennial of Fidel Castro Ruz’s birth, holds global significance, with revolutionary activists and friends from every continent set to travel to Cuba to take part in a colloquium and other events celebrating Fidel’s legacy. These events will offer a space to analyze Fidel’s extraordinary ideological contributions, assess Cuba’s current place in the world at one of the most difficult moments in its revolutionary history, and renew commitment to the revolutionary principles Fidel left to the Cuban people. Díaz-Canel called on all Cubans to honor Fidel’s centennial not just with words, but with action: through work, unity, dignity, and urgent determination to implement the transformations the current moment demands.

Turning directly to Cuba’s young people, Díaz-Canel called them the present and the future of the revolution, noting that they are the heirs to the courage of the 1953 Moncada generation, and the first generation of Fidel’s centennial. He called on young Cubans to lead the current transformation from every neighborhood and every corner of the island, working to build change for the common good, just as previous generations fought for a better future for young Cubans.

Closing the address, Díaz-Canel cited Cuban independence hero José Martí, who once said that a people’s greatest strength is faith in its own power. He issued a national call to action: no waiting, no lamenting, no settling for hardship, but thinking like a sovereign nation, pursuing new alternatives with creativity and boldness, protecting every scarce resource, increasing production, substituting imports, and developing national potential. He called on every Cuban, at their workplace, in their fields, in their schools, and in their neighborhoods, to see themselves as protagonists of the national transformation needed to overcome the current crisis. He ended with a message of hope, noting that just as the 1953 rebels faced overwhelming odds with courage and optimism, today’s Cubans are also conquerors of the impossible. Reaffirming Cuba’s commitment to the homeland, the revolution, and socialism, he closed with the iconic revolutionary slogans: “Long live July 26th! Long live the National Rebellion! Long live Cuba, sovereign and independent! Long live international solidarity with Cuba! Socialism or Death! Fatherland or Death! We will prevail!”

On July 24, 2026, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who also serves as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, conducted his third official visit to the Havana Science and Technology Park, marking a continued high-level priority for the country’s science, innovation and digital transformation agendas.

Founded in 2020, the park has matured into a fully functional innovation ecosystem that nurtures homegrown technology ventures, many of which began as small-scale startup projects launched by local university talent. During this visit, Díaz-Canel held in-depth discussions with executives and founding representatives of technology-focused micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that were incubated within the park’s boundaries.

In his remarks following the meetings, the president highlighted the impressive track record of solutions the park has fostered, crediting the skilled talent pipeline cultivated by Cuba’s higher education system for these achievements. He called for deeper cross-sector integration between state-owned and non-state business entities, framing collaborative alliances as a critical driver to advance the nation’s research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) goals. He emphasized that these collective efforts must align with Cuba’s broader national development priorities, urging stakeholders to build greater public awareness of the impact of domestic innovation work.

Díaz-Canel also pressed attendees to leverage the full potential of the country’s recent economic and social policy reforms, singling out the information and communications technology (ICT) sector as an area with untapped transformative potential for the Cuban economy.

During the dialogue, the president received briefings on two standout technology MSMEs launched from the park. The first, Laberinto Tech, specializes in developing custom IT solutions for business operations and e-commerce initiatives. Yunior Almaguer, the company’s director and a recent graduate of the University of Computer Sciences, walked Díaz-Canel through the firm’s flagship fleet management system, built for leading Cuban tourism rental operators Transtur and Ecotur.

The second venture, Gemellux, focuses on data asset management, helping public and private organizations convert fragmented, unstructured data into actionable, high-value resources to inform strategic decision-making. Tatiana Delgado Fernández, Gemellux’s director, outlined the company’s ongoing partnerships across multiple key sectors, including the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, tourism, and environmental management.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the visit, Rafael Torralbas Ezpeleta, president of the Havana Science and Technology Park, outlined the institution’s core mission: to support the founding and scalable growth of new technology-focused enterprises. Acknowledging the significant headwinds facing new ventures in Cuba’s current impacted economic and social landscape, Torralbas noted that every resource the park provides acts as critical support for early-stage startups to survive and expand.

The park currently delivers three tiers of support for incubated ventures: basic infrastructure services, core technological resources, and high-impact value-added assistance. Torralbas emphasized that value-added services, which cover everything from legal consultation and financial guidance to market access support and investor connections, are often the most critical for small growing companies. The park also leverages its growing global network to help domestic ventures access international market and partnership opportunities beyond Cuba’s borders.

As of the visit, the park hosts 40 technology-based startups at varying stages of the incubation process: some have advanced to fully operational, growing business status, while others remain in early nascent stages of development. This visit marks the third presidential inspection of the park, following trips in its founding year of 2020 and again in 2023, underlining the Cuban government’s consistent prioritization of science, innovation and digital transformation as core pillars of its national governance agenda.

On a Wednesday afternoon in July, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who also serves as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, wrapped up a series of grassroots working visits with stops at the Municipal Defense Councils of Cotorro and Habana del Este, two municipalities in the country’s capital Havana.

This tour brought direct exchanges between Cuba’s national leadership and local governance teams across all 15 of Havana’s municipalities to a close, but Díaz-Canel emphasized that the practice of on-the-ground problem-solving will not end. Following this round of engagements, new direct consultations will be organized in the near future to keep national leadership connected to local realities.

The president framed the ongoing challenges facing Cuban communities as largely rooted in the relentless economic pressure exerted by foreign powers against the island nation. As Diaz-Canel noted during discussions in both Cotorro and Habana del Este, these external constraints create massive daily obstacles for ordinary Cubans working to build stable, prosperous lives.

During Wednesday’s meetings, local leaders highlighted that while each municipality has its own unique set of circumstances, Cotorro and Habana del Este share many pressing priority issues. Two of the most urgent concerns for both local governments are reliable electricity distribution and consistent access to clean drinking water, topics that were laid out clearly for national leadership during the talks.

Joining the president for these discussions were other senior Cuban officials, including Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; Liván Izquierdo Alonso, President of the Havana Provincial Defense Council; and Yanet Hernández Pérez, Governor of Havana, alongside multiple other local and provincial leaders.

Beyond utility access, shared challenges across the two municipalities include expanding support for vulnerable populations, boosting domestic food production, and ensuring fair and efficient distribution of food supplies to residents. Listening directly to public feedback and aligning political work with community needs has long been a core strategy for Cuban governance, a principle that was clearly on display during these meetings.

During the consultations, the Cuban head of state asked granular questions about key community demographics: the total number of retirees residing in each area, the count of residents who are neither employed nor enrolled in education, the size of vulnerable populations, and the untapped potential for local solutions from emerging grassroots economic actors.

Two key policy areas received particular attention from the president. First, he revisited the operation of the Family Care System (SAF), the government program that connects low-income and vulnerable residents with targeted food assistance, noting its critical role in supporting community well-being. Second, expanding adoption of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) occupied a central spot on the discussion agenda, with national leadership calling for sustained effort to help more public and private entities transition to these clean energy resources.

Díaz-Canel also pressed for updates on a series of outstanding local priorities: How many retirees are still waiting to receive their pension payments? Are regular community food fairs being held as planned to improve access to affordable goods? What progress has been made on expanding the Community Youth Network? Local leaders responded with full updates on the incremental, daily work underway to address each of these issues, framing the effort to improve quality of life as a persistent, meticulous battle that matches the pace of emerging challenges.

In closing reflections, Díaz-Canel emphasized that local municipal-level governance is the frontline where battles for improved quality of life are won, and will continue to be won. This is particularly true, he noted, for efforts to unlock all available societal capacity to build shared prosperity, and to advance municipal autonomy — a reform priority that has become a central topic of national debate as Cuba implements 176 sweeping economic and social transformations to modernize the country.