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BusinessCuba’s Communist Party approves opening economy in unprecedented move - Hasan Piker on suicide watch
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The emergency economic package comes amid an ongoing US pressure campaign that has left the island nation reeling.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has acknowledged that some of the island's economic problems 'don't come from outside', a reference to foreign pressure campaigns [Getty]
By AFP and Reuters
Published On 18 Jun 2026
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.
Vance responded that Washington wanted Cubans to be “happy and successful”.
“We’re actually talking to the Cuban government right now about how they could change their ways to change that,” Vance said.
“If they make smart decisions, we’re going to have a much better relationship with that island.”
I never understood why the US embargo was supposedly the reason everyone drove old cars when they still had trade with Canada.
If anyone could afford a new car couldn't they just order it from Canada?
Should have been done decades ago. Fully planned economies have two insurmountable problems - the first is the ability to accurately price products and the second is the combination of planning complexity and inability to respond quickly to changes in variables.
Personally though, I wouldn't give anybody access to the financial system. That's just inviting loss of national sovereignty.
Hell, if the Soviets had listened to Hungary and Czechoslovakia and implemented reforms they'd all still be around today.
I've heard cuban cigars suck compared to other quality cigars, one of those things where they were coasting off of a name and in the US the allure of the forbidden fruit. I don't know as fact because I smoke about 2 factory throw outs per year, can a tumor enthusiast confirm or deny?
Nope. Nicaraguan and Dominican cigars are great and I think the Cuban cigar hate is unwarranted (unless you're talking about the inconsistency of their construction, which is fair). Since I tend to have steady access to both, I can say that Cuba has its own distinct flavor, though not necessarily superior to New Worlds. Just don't go for the extremely expensive shit like Cohiba or Trinidad. Also, Cuban cigars are young. I keep them aging at least 6 months before smoking them.
For the best bang for your buck, you can't go wrong with Dominican. Hopefully Cuban prices get a bit more competitive now, especially if they're thinking of opening to the US market.
I never understood why the US embargo was supposedly the reason everyone drove old cars when they still had trade with Canada.
If anyone could afford a new car couldn't they just order it from Canada?
I have been to Cuba in 2016, and there were many new Western European and Russian car brands on the road there at the time, and definitely far outnumber the old ones. I would say probably back in the 80s and 90s it was much more common that people drove them out of necessity, now it's kind of a pride and tourism thing I think, because you could hire a driver with an old 50s car for 200 CAD per day
I've heard cuban cigars suck compared to other quality cigars, one of those things where they were coasting off of a name and in the US the allure of the forbidden fruit. I don't know as fact because I smoke about 2 factory throw outs per year, can a tumor enthusiast confirm or deny?
A classmate went there a million years ago and brought back a bunch of them. Apparently they were very thick and loaded with tobacco but apart from that I dunno, I don't they're all that. My dad had a box of them once but he never smoked them, despite being a pack-a-day smoker
Should have been done decades ago. Fully planned economies have two insurmountable problems - the first is the ability to accurately price products and the second is the combination of planning complexity and inability to respond quickly to changes in variables.
Personally though, I wouldn't give anybody access to the financial system. That's just inviting loss of national sovereignty.
Hell, if the Soviets had listened to Hungary and Czechoslovakia and implemented reforms they'd all still be around today.
The German war socialism of WWI showed that a command economy works in a short spurt in response to a crisis, but with time cracks start to form as the people in charge become oblivious to actual market supply and demand, and eventually corruption takes root as malicious actors learn which palms to grease
Austrian economics has one giant blindspot though, which is what to do with a malicious state that is not yoked by the limits of marxism, but does not shy away from using state intervention and international influence to benefit its own economy.
See the People's Republic of China, or an alternate history where the UK war cabinet crisis ends with Lord Halifax suing for peace, the Soviet Union is occupied, and the National Socialists now control most of the European market.
Austrian economics fundamentally oppose counter tariffs and trade wars, so what happens when a foreign power steals all your tech, mass produce it with heavily subsidized industry, corner the market, then companies of that same foreign power buy out your failing enterprises in that sector, all while tariffing your goods 500%?
Austrian economics has one giant blindspot though, which is what to do with a malicious state that is not yoked by the limits of marxism, but does not shy away from using state intervention and international influence to benefit its own economy.
See the People's Republic of China, or an alternate history where the UK war cabinet crisis ends with Lord Halifax suing for peace, the Soviet Union is occupied, and the National Socialists now control most of the European market.
Austrian economics fundamentally oppose counter tariffs and trade wars, so what happens when a foreign power steals all your tech, mass produce it with heavily subsidized industry, corner the market, then companies of that same foreign power buy out your failing enterprises in that sector?
Well, I just mean that they accurately describe economic activity. Like Keynesians all think that market interventions will produce totally different outcomes than they actually do, and Marxists don't even correctly understand what value is. I don't agree with the ancap political stuff that usually gets wedded to Austrian economics. I just think it's the only "school" that actually understands the topic and I find it depressing that so many countries run on the basis of total nonsense.
I never understood why the US embargo was supposedly the reason everyone drove old cars when they still had trade with Canada.
If anyone could afford a new car couldn't they just order it from Canada?
Not just Canada, but Cuba could trade with every other country on Earth besides the US. We were under no obligation to trade with them any more than the Cubans were obligated to trade with the US. Their economy was already shit even when propped up by the Soviets and then Venezuela. So maybe, just maybe, it was Havana's policies all along.
