Cuba’s Communist Party Approves Emergency Free-Market Reforms Amid U.S. Pressure

Cuba’s Communist Party approved an emergency economic package featuring “unprecedented free-market measures” aimed at opening up the struggling island’s economy amid heightened pressure from the United States.

The proposals were submitted to Cuba’s National Assembly on Thursday, where they were described as “all but assured to pass,” and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the country’s “dire economic situation could not be blamed on external pressure alone.”

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The package would expand opportunities for private enterprise, create measures to attract additional foreign investment, and allow private banks to enter Cuba’s once state-dominated finance sector.

The reforms also set the stage for private real estate development and for transforming state-owned businesses into private commercial ventures with shares and equity stakes, according to the emergency plan described in the reporting.

The AP described proposals to decentralize Cuba’s state-run economy, including reducing the number of ministries from 27 to 21 and giving municipalities greater authority to approve businesses and manage their own foreign-currency revenue.

AP also said Cuba has 168 municipalities across its 15 provinces and that the measures would allow municipalities to import and export goods and manage their own foreign-currency revenue.

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The AP further reported that Cuba has about 2,000 state-owned enterprises and that the reforms would broaden what state-owned companies are permitted to do, including designing their own pay systems and entering partnerships with private businesses and cooperatives.

In a separate Reuters account, Cuba’s prime minister presented lawmakers with a list of “upwards of 175 measures” backed by the Communist Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the socialist economy.

The reform push is framed as a response to mounting U.S. pressure, with Al Jazeera saying that since January the administration of President Donald Trump has increased pressure by blocking fuel deliveries to the island.

Al Jazeera also reported that European Union pressure escalated when it passed a resolution calling for sanctions on Diaz-Canel and the leadership of Grupo de Administracion Empresarial SA, while the EU condemned what it described as “the systematic repression” by the Cuban government.

Reuters reported that the measures require a vote of the National Assembly for implementation, and it quoted Prime Minister Manuel Marrero telling legislators that “These transformations do not constitute a deviation from our socialist project.”

Reuters also said the package would allow private banks to enter Cuba’s once state-dominated finance sector and would open the door to private real estate development, while the AP noted the full document had not been released even as the National Assembly debate was set to proceed.