"It is, above all, about saving the Revolution," emphasized Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba's Central Committee and President of the Republic, during the most recent Council of Ministers meeting, which outlined the roadmap for implementing the country's newly approved economic and social transformations.

"We face a complex dilemma we can solve: how to continue the socialist construction process on a small Caribbean island that has suffered the longest blockade in human history by the world's most powerful nation," the Head of State warned. This challenge must be faced without surrender, with intelligence, ideological firmness, responsibility, unity, courage, and audacity. "That is what falls to the generations defending the Revolution," he stressed.

The president asserted that the transformations are aimed at saving the Revolution, regardless of what enemies say. "Today, no country in the world is more aggressed than Cuba, with a multidimensional war, and we have the responsibility, under those conditions, not only to save it but to continue perfecting our socialist construction process."

"What it is about is, first and foremost, unleashing productive forces so we build wealth and distribute it with social justice," he stated. Anything that unleashes productive forces must be applied immediately, because the first response sought with these transformations is for all economic actors to begin working in a different dynamic.

Díaz-Canel referred to the priority of approving everything that places economic actors on equal footing. "We are talking about the economic actors of socialist construction, of our Economic and Social Model. Therefore, they are those who will work contributing to the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030, the 2026 Government Economic and Social Program, and territorial and local development strategies."

The President considered legal security a fundamental element. "Clear rules must be in place for everything we are going to do; there must be transparency in order to control, from a popular and institutional point of view, everything we do."

He reiterated the urgency of "explaining how each transformation defends socialist construction; how it will contribute to economic growth and social development; how it will allow us to grow in wealth to distribute with social justice and improve the situation of the most vulnerable; and how each transformation will further strengthen respect for the rights of all Cuban women and men in our society."

"We will not achieve proper implementation without population participation," he warned. "Our discussion is not exhausted; perhaps someone proposes something superior to what we have reached, and where there is no understanding, we must explain why and listen."

The country needs much debate, he considered, but to debate one must listen and build consensus, because we are going toward an extremely complex process in an extremely complex situation. "This is what is truly contributive, and this is living up to our time, the time we have been given to live, the historical moment," he said regarding the approved transformations.

He called for applying "all the categories of Fidel's concept of Revolution to the attitude we must assume. They are all here in what we must do to defend these transformations. When I speak of defense, it is not only about implementing them — it is about implementing them well and getting results," he concluded.

THE IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP

The members of the highest government body approved the proposal presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz for implementing the economic and social transformations the country will undertake immediately for its recovery.

He detailed that after the sessions of the Party Central Committee Plenary and the National Assembly of People's Power, as well as meetings with members of the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba and other experts, an update was made to the initial document on economic and social transformations based on 673 proposals received, of which 79% were accepted. The majority, he specified, were aimed at enriching the implementation process now beginning.

Marrero Cruz pointed out that in the coming days, actions will be implemented concerning: approving new powers for the socialist state enterprise; decentralizing to the business system the ability to approve wholesale and retail prices; resizing Superior Business Management Organizations; empowering provincial governments and Administrative Councils to create, merge, extinguish, and liquidate local state enterprises; flexibilizing the approval and use of post-tax profits; and decentralizing wage scale approval powers to the state business system, among other important steps.

Regarding the non-state sector, priorities in implementation include: approving pending MSMEs and non-agricultural cooperatives; reducing procedures, terms, and requirements for creating new economic actors; allowing the hiring of more than 100 workers and permitting a natural person to own more than one private enterprise; expanding the corporate forms in which they can organize; and reducing the list of prohibited activities in this sector.

Concerning agricultural recovery, he addressed as a priority the modification of land management and use for all economic actors, and likewise flexibilizing commercialization.

Marrero Cruz clarified that the economic and social transformations — contained in 23 axes covering a broad range of urgent matters — are not foreign to any agency, and require updating work systems to dedicate the most time and analysis to them. In this, "the role we cadres must play is decisive; the greatest transformation must be in our way of thinking."

The document with the 176 approved economic and social transformations is published on the Government platform (www.soberania.gob.cu) and the Presidency website (www.presidencia.gob.cu).

In the debate on this matter, Justice Minister Rosabel Gamón Verde explained that the approved transformations have an impact on the legal system, motivating modifications to some existing regulations and the drafting of others. She assured the process would be agile but require full-time work. Effectiveness and speed cannot undermine achievements in the norm-creation process, including legality, democratization, popular participation whenever possible, and the quality of our legal norms.

National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hernández added that the usual time for drafting legal norms will be significantly reduced, eliminating a series of current steps, while always maintaining respect for the Constitution, necessary consultations, and participation, but the process will be more expeditious.

AGENDA ITEMS

The Council of Ministers meeting also presented an analysis of the Cuban economy's performance in the first half of the year, deeply impacted by the U.S. government's blockade policy and the continued oil siege, which affects all sectors of national life. Reports on the State Budget execution through May and the estimate for the first semester were evaluated, and the 2025 Budget liquidation was approved — the latter to be presented at the next National Assembly session.

Green light was also given to the proposal for early assignment of Higher Education graduates and medium-level technicians completing their studies in 2027. Additionally, a report was presented on results in detecting, preventing, and attending to minors under the Ministry of the Interior's care for committing acts typified as crimes and manifesting harmful conduct — work intensified in the country through cohesion between operational bodies and Central State Administration agencies, social, mass, and political organizations.