Cuba’s Communist Party approves opening economy in unprecedented move

Cuba’s Communist Party has approved a raft of unprecedented free-market measures as part of an emergency economic package.

The package was submitted to the country’s National Assembly on Thursday, where it is all but assured to pass.

The plan would expand opportunities for private enterprise and create measures to attract additional foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad.

It could also set the stage for private real estate development ⁠on the Caribbean island and the ⁠transformation of state-owned businesses ⁠into private commercial ventures with shares and equity stakes. It would also ‌allow private banks to enter Cuba’s once state-dominated ‌finance ‌sector.

The reform package signals a dramatic shift for Cuba, which is led by the Communist Party.

Speaking to the party’s Central Committee in a broadcast on Thursday, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the country’s dire economic situation could not be blamed on external pressure alone.

For decades, the US has imposed a trade embargo on Cuba, weakening its economy. Since January, the US pressure against Cuba has increased, with the administration of President Donald Trump blocking fuel deliveries to the island.

But Diaz-Canel acknowledged that some of the present-day economic strife was due to domestic factors, referencing “obstacles that don’t come from outside, nor the blockade”.

He pointed to “slowness, bureaucracy and norms that impede those who want to produce” as well as “decisions that we have put off”.

“The situation calls for urgent and necessary changes,” he said.

On Thursday, the European Union also increased pressure on Cuba, passing a resolution that called for sanctions on Diaz-Canel and the leadership of Grupo de Administracion Empresarial SA, a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban military.

The EU resolution condemned what it described as “the systematic repression” by the Cuban government, while calling for “profound economic and political change”.

In his address, Diaz-Canel suggested there would likely be some opposition to the emergency economic plan from hardliners in the Communist Party, which has officially governed Cuba since 1965.

Some of the reforms, he said, “will not have absolute consensus, but cannot be postponed”.

Former Cuban leader Raul Castro, who was indicted by the US in May, has also backed the plan.

Trump administration officials, notably Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have repeatedly said that economic reforms could ease Washington’s pressure campaign against the island. But the US did not immediately respond to the latest moves.

Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance was asked on Thursday if the Trump administration would now turn its sights to Cuba after reaching a memorandum of understanding to end the war on Iran.

Trump has repeatedly floated both military attacks and what he has described as a “friendly takeover” of Cuba.