Cuba’s Communist Party approves emergency economic plan opening to
private enterprise
[June 19, 2026] By
ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s powerful Communist Party on Thursday approved an
emergency economic package featuring unprecedented free-market measures
aimed at opening up the struggling island’s economy as pressure from the
U.S. and the European Union heightens.
The document, which has not yet been made public, will be submitted
Thursday to Cuba’s National Assembly. It envisions expanding
opportunities for private enterprise, greater autonomy for
municipalities and state-owned companies and measures to attract
additional foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad.
In recent days, residents in several Havana neighborhoods staged
protests, banging pots and pans as power outages spread across the
island.
“Cuba resists heroically and creatively, but has endured for too long a
barbaric, undeserved and unbearable punishment, to which is now added
the threat of military aggression,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel said
late Wednesday in the closing speech of the Communist Party session. The
speech was published Thursday.
The announcement comes after months of increasing pressure from the U.S.
and high-level talks between the two countries that have included Raúl
Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro. The U.S. has levied
numerous sanctions against Cuba and has indicted Raúl Castro in
connection with the 1996 downing of two civilian planes operated by
Miami exiles.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said at a White House press briefing that
the administration is watching the island's actions to determine how to
respond.
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 “We’re going to see what they do.
And obviously, if they do one thing, we’re going to do something,”
Vance said. "If they make smart decisions, we’re going to have a
much better relationship with that island.”
Pressure from the European Union also ratcheted up
Thursday, with lawmakers passing a resolution condemning “the
systematic repression” by the Cuban government and demanding
“profound economic and political change.” The resolution also called
for EU sanctions targeting Díaz-Canel and the leadership of Grupo de
Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a business conglomerate
operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. Both have already
been sanctioned by the U.S.
Díaz-Canel said the emergency plan and the policy document prepared
by the Communist Party’s Central Committee were shaped by the
experiences of China and Vietnam, two communist countries that have
introduced market-oriented economic reforms while maintaining
one-party rule.
The document will be submitted to the National Assembly for debate
during a special session that, like the recent party meeting, was
convened without prior public notice.
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Seung Min Kim in Washington and Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed
to this story.
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