Cuban President affirms 2021 will be a year of challenges

The coming 2021 will be a year of challenges for Cuba, a stage of improvement, dialogue and continuity in line with the transformations advancing today in the country, said President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

In the midst of these complex changes, the nation demands efforts and unity, the president acknowledged in a recent meeting with capital authorities after a two-day government visit to this province.

'We can say that 2020 has been a tough year, which put us to the test; a year of resistance but one that fostered solidarity and unity,' he stressed, quoted by the Presidency's website.

According to the president, the current context is more complex and aggressive than ever.

'We cannot be naive when we learn of the existence of an annexationist swarm wanting the Revolution to collapse, which tries to take advantage of everything that happens, because there is a lot of money involved and advice from the brutal north,' he said.

They tried to apply a platform of soft coup or unconventional warfare without success, he added, however this should alert us of future provocations in the country.

'Therefore, we must have a strong pulse, with intelligence and sharpened lucidity, to confront all these imperialist plans,' he said.

Regarding the monetary reform, the president called to pay attention to the behavior of prices due to the high impact that its increase may have on the financial balance of the population.

The design requires that price-wage relationship be more proportional because purchasing power is lost, he explained.

As a first step in this strategy, to be applied as of January 1, the exchange rate of 24 pesos to one US dollar implies a new exchange rate, the cessation of CUC circulation and the establishment of the peso as the only national currency.

In addition, the elimination of excessive subsidies and undue gratuities and a modification in the distribution of income are foreseen.