June 24, 2026
Marrero Cruz
The following statement was made by Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, at the Third Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People’s Power in its 10th Legislature on June 22, 2026, in Havana, Cuba. Go to the Granma website at tinyurl.com/kcj32sj6 to read all of the proposals.
Cuban leader Marrero Cruz: “These transformations do not constitute a deviation from the socialist project; on the contrary, they respond to the inherent logic of its development.”
Comrade Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution;
Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic;
Comrade Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and of the Council of State;
Commander of the Rebel Army, José Ramón Machado Ventura;
Dear Deputies;
Fellow Cubans:
As we all know, our country is facing one of its most complex moments since the Special Period. A combination of unprecedented U.S. coercive measures against Cuba has been implemented, even leading to the interruption of fuel supplies and all sources of foreign currency revenue. This has logically had a significant impact on the deterioration and instability of the energy infrastructure and, consequently, on the quality of life of millions of Cubans.
We have never denied our own errors and shortcomings; however, this set of factors has consistently influenced the effective implementation of the transformations to our Economic and Social Model, approved at the 6th Party Congress in 2011. These transformations yielded positive results until mid-2019, when the U.S. government substantially intensified its sanctions policy, which was further reinforced in early January 2025.
In this context, the Party and the Government, in the legitimate exercise of their sovereign power, have been promoting measures to reactivate the economy and correct distortions, a process that has been strengthened by the approval of the Government’s Economic and Social Program, validated by our people through popular consultation.
In the current scenario, taking this vital force, this popular sentiment, as our direct reference point, we have decided to propose transformations of strategic impact on the nation’s Economic and Social Model, without this implying a renunciation of preserving the principal achievements of the Revolution.
The transformations we will present find their primary foundation in the thinking of the Commander-in-Chief, [Fidel Castro], not as a renunciation of the construction of socialism, but as a condition for its preservation. In 1993, in the midst of the Special Period, he warned: “Today, life, reality, the dramatic situation the world is experiencing, this unipolar world, compels us to do what we would never have done otherwise if we had had capital and if we had had the technology to do it.”
Without ever abandoning socialism, these transformations have been designed based on the guiding principle of doing what is necessary to preserve what is essential.
The expansion of participation for all economic actors on equal terms, and of foreign investment, or the acceptance of market mechanisms as instruments for resource allocation, do not constitute, under this logic, a capitulation, but rather the sovereign exercise of adapting development instruments to the specific circumstances of the country.
Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, in leading the process of updating the Cuban Economic and Social Model, formalized in the Guidelines and Conceptualization approved at the last Party congresses, bases his premise on avoiding dogmatism and inertia; on rejecting the mechanical association between socialism and egalitarianism; and on recognizing that socialist planning does not exclude, but rather must incorporate and regulate, market rules.
Comrades:
In developing the proposed transformations, the guidelines of the Army General and the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic were considered, as well as the Government’s 2026 Economic and Social Program, the proposed update to the Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model, and the resolutions of the Congress of the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba.
The results of consultations with 46 comrades were also taken into account. These included key State and Government officials, heads of national entities, presidents of State Business Organizations (OSDEs), experts and academics, representatives of the Party’s and National Assembly’s economic commissions, representatives of the National Association of Economists and Accountants (ANEC), economists, and 87 members of the Auxiliary Structure of the Party’s Central Committee.
A total of 390 proposals were received, of which 66.7% were accepted. The remaining proposals correspond to the subsequent implementation process, other positive assessments of the document, and aspects that do not constitute transformations per se.
As a result of the analysis of the proposed transformations made in the Political Bureau, 69 recommendations were incorporated into the document.
