The Highest Authority of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) approved on Wednesday June 17 a package of reforms towards a more market economy at a time when the island, put under pressure by Washington, is going through a very serious economic crisis.
“The Party’s central committee approves new proposals for economic and social transformations,” state television reported, after the body met in an extraordinary plenary session to discuss around twenty reform proposals.
These reforms, recently unveiled by the government, aim in particular to open more sectors to private investment, attract more capital from Cubans abroad and reduce the size of the state. To be definitively adopted, they must still be approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power. The latter will meet in an extraordinary session on Thursday, less than a week after the reforms were announced by President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
A little earlier, the influential former Cuban president Raúl Castro had given his support to these proposals intended to revive an economy which had been suffering for several years and was now stifled by the American blockade.
Raúl Castro no longer has an official function but remains, at 95 years old, at the heart of decisions concerning the future of the communist island. He supported these reforms in a letter presented at the plenary meeting, calling them “what best suits the revolution at this time,” according to the Cuban presidency. The younger brother of Fidel Castro (1926-2016), whom he succeeded in 2006, was indicted in May in the United States for having ordered shootings on two civilian planes piloted by members of an anti-Castro organization in 1996.
An American policy of pressure
These reform announcements come as US President Donald Trump applies a policy of maximum pressure on the island, which has been subject to an oil embargo for almost five months. Washington does not hide its desire to see a change in the economic model, or even the regime, on the island located approximately 150 kilometers from the coast of Florida.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, quoted by the government, affirmed that the planned reforms “in no way imply renouncing the social responsibility of the State”.
The oil blockade imposed by Donald Trump in January pushed Cuba’s already weakened economy to the brink of collapse, causing widespread power outages, as well as shortages of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine.
Washington has also recently decreed several waves of sanctions targeting the Cuban economy, aggravating the economic, social and energy crisis that Havana has been experiencing for several years, under an American embargo since 1962.
The Cuban government, which is holding discussions with the United States, has said these reforms should help alleviate the crisis. President Díaz-Canel indicated on Friday that the range of activities open to the private sector would be “the widest possible”.
