Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) on Wednesday approved a package of reforms aimed at opening more sectors to private investment.
The reform process coincides with growing US economic pressure and comes amid regular power outages and shortages of other resources on the island.
Miguel Diaz-Canel, the country’s president and first secretary of its only legal political party, first presented the plans late last week.
What did the PCC say while approving the reforms?
The PCC Central Committee held an extraordinary plenary session on Wednesday to urgently evaluate the proposals.
The party wrote on social media that the changes were “an expression of the logic of development in historical times”, and stressed that they “in no way deviate from the socialist project.”
It also repeatedly said that Raul Castro, the 95-year-old brother of revolutionary leader Fidel and still widely seen as at least the symbolic power behind the throne, had been consulted on the proposals and approved. Castro participated via video feed but did not appear in person.
PCC Political Bureau member José Amado Ricardo Guerra told the assembly Castro “fully agrees” with the economic reforms proposed by Díaz-Canel and is “convinced that the best ideas always emerge from collective analysis and even from differences of opinion.”
Unionist Crespo Baquero, head of the committee’s ideological department, reiterated the party’s message that these steps were a response to the “economic war Cuba faces.” But he also praised the reforms as “a domestic, creative, brave and revolutionary response”.
What changes may occur?
President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s proposals, which were put forward for the first time in a surprise appearance before state media, are not particularly well-defined but promise to be quite far-reaching. Some notable aspects are:
- ‘New actors’ should be allowed to operate under the ‘new model’ in the tourism sector
- Foreign direct investment (especially by non-resident Cubans, many of whom live in the US) should be encouraged.
- Steps will be taken towards expansion of private sector
- The reforms will aim to revive key sectors like agriculture, foreign trade and real estate
- The decision-making process will be decentralised, with greater ‘autonomy’ granted to state-owned companies and local municipalities.
Why is this happening now?
This reaction is seen partly as a response to growing public discontent in Cuba as well as a long-term and gradual economic decline, punctuated by a severe contraction over the past six years, but arguably much older.
However, since the beginning of the year, this process has become much faster and intensified due to increasing economic and political pressure from the US.
The Trump administration is demanding sweeping political and economic reforms from Havana, and is openly flirting with notions of regime change or some kind of intervention, similar to its sudden move to kidnap and detain Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation. The United States has charged Fidel Castro with murder for his alleged role in the plane crash.
Since January, the US has almost completely blocked the flow of oil and petroleum products to Cuba. This has caused international companies operating on the island – hotel chains, shipping lines, tourist-related enterprises such as airlines and banks – to rush to leave Cuba, perhaps fearing secondary sanctions.
Fuel shortage is having a serious impact on agriculture and industry. Power outages and shortages are common in Havana and beyond, with lighting at its peak most nights.
The deteriorating situation has led to rare protests on the island.
Although they have mostly been small and peaceful – for example beating people over pots and pans, or burning piles of garbage in the streets because collection runs out – this is a rare public expression of dissatisfaction with the one-party state.
what happens next?
The next step on the path to making changes to the law is approval from the country’s unicameral parliament and sole legislative body, the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP).
A meeting has been called on Thursday to discuss the plan.
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Edited by: Zack Crellin