Cuba approves unprecedented free-market reforms in effort to stave off economic collapse

Cuba approves unprecedented free-market reforms in effort to stave off economic collapse

Cuban lawmakers Thursday adopted nearly 200 historic free-market reforms aimed at rescuing the Communist island from a severe crisis aggravated by a U.S. oil blockade.

In a landmark speech to the National Assembly, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero unveiled 176 measures aimed at rolling back the state’s role in the economy and attracting investment in everything from banking to tourism and agriculture.

Under the reforms, foreign investors are no longer required to form joint ventures with the state, large private enterprises will be authorized, and both Cuban and foreign investors will be allowed to acquire stakes in state companies.

These and other huge changes come as the United States exerts relentless pressure on the island, with President Trump musing openly about taking over the Caribbean nation just 90 miles from Florida.

Daniel Torralbas, a London-based Cuban economist, described the reforms as “the most profound” since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro.

They were adopted in a unanimous show of hands by lawmakers at a session which ended with President Miguel Diaz-Canel intoning Castro’s famous revolutionary slogan: “Socialism or death!” 

Marrero did not give a time-frame for implementing the reforms but Diaz-Canel had on Wednesday argued the need for “urgent changes” to stave off economic collapse.

A general view of the Malecon waterfront in Havana, Cuba, on June 18, 2026.

Pablo Porciuncula /AFP via Getty Images


The oil blockade imposed by Mr. Trump in January, after his ouster of Cuba ally Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, has brought the island’s economy to the brink of collapse, forcing the Communist Party into concessions it previously considered heretical.

While Havana’s custom has always been to blame its woes on a more-than-six-decade U.S. trade embargo, and more recently the oil blockade, Diaz-Canel admitted to the existence of “obstacles that don’t come from outside, nor the blockade.”

In usually frank language, he called out “slowness, bureaucracy and norms that impede those who want to produce” as well as “decisions that we have put off.”

“Their backs are up against the wall as never before,” Michael Bustamante, Cuban studies chair at the University of Miami, told Agence France-Presse.

“They’re in the uncomfortable position of making changes to their economic model, seemingly because of the pressure that’s being exerted on them by the United States.”

A defiant Diaz-Canel insisted that the government was “not doing this because of pressure from the Yankees,” but to “preserve” socialism.

Just a single oil tanker, from Russia, has docked in Cuba since the beginning of the year.

Power cuts, sometimes lasting over 30 hours, have become the norm, and food, fuel, drinking water and medicine are in short supply.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned that “children are dying” in Cuba because of a shortage of medical supplies and medication.

Victor Hierrezuelo, a 63-year-old bank worker, told AFP on Thursday that, absent reforms, “the revolution will collapse!”

It is unclear, however, whether the changes will satisfy Mr. Trump, who is pushing for a change in Cuba’s leaders as well as its economic model.

Asked Thursday if Cuba was now in Mr. Trump’s sights after he signed a deal to end the Iran war, Vice President JD Vance said 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,” he added.

The U.S. has heaped considerable pressure on Cuba’s leadership of late. Last month, the U.S. indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro, brother of the late Fidel Castro, on charges connected to Cuba’s decision to shoot down two civilian planes flown by a humanitarian group in 1996.

Prior to that indictment, in early May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana to meet with senior Cuban officials, where he signaled the U.S. was open to expanding political dialogue between the two countries. On that trip, however, multiple sources told CBS News that Ratcliffe brought along a paramilitary leader who was involved in the U.S. mission to capture Maduro.

Many disillusioned locals, weary after weeks of power cuts, which causes food to rot, shrugged off the reforms as too little, too late.

But the country’s burgeoning small business sector welcomed the changes.

They “offer hope,” said Mario Gonzales, the 32-year-old manager of a restaurant in Havana’s historic old town, who is hoping for a tourism revival.

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Deadspin | Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood pay fines, but Ryder Cup still elusive <div id=""><section id="0" class=" w-full"><div class="xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0"><img src="https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-1200,fo-auto/26903367.jpg" srcset="https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-400,fo-auto/26903367.jpg 400w, https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-800,fo-auto/26903367.jpg 800w, https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-1200,fo-auto/26903367.jpg 1200w" alt="Aug 22, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Lee Westwood of Majesticks GC walks the course during the quarterfinals of the LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship at The Cardinal at Saint John's Resort. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images" class="w-full" sizes="1200px" fetchpriority="high" loading="eager"/><span class="text-0.8 leading-tight">Aug 22, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Lee Westwood of Majesticks GC walks the course during the quarterfinals of the LIV Golf Michigan Team Championship at The Cardinal at Saint John’s Resort. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> </span></div></section><section id="section-1"> <p>Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood have settled their outstanding large fines with the DP World Tour, according to a Thursday report from GolfWeek, but the pair still wouldn’t be eligible to serve as Ryder Cup captains.</p> </section><section id="section-2"> <p>“Under our current regulations, even if they were to rejoin as members, neither can serve as a Captain or Vice Captain in the Ryder Cup,” a DP World Tour spokesman confirmed to GolfWeek.</p> </section><section id="section-3"> <p>The duo participated in the first LIV event in 2022, initiating a series of absences from the DP World Tour, during which neither officially resigned until the next season. This series of absences led to multiple fines, and in Poulter’s case, he confirmed it was around $1.1 million.</p> </section><section id="section-4"> <p>Given the similarity of the violations, Westwood’s fine is estimated to be roughly the same.</p> </section><br/><section id="section-5"> <p>Poulter had previously rejected the notion of paying any fines whatsoever, also brushing off the possibility that LIV Golf funder PIF should pay any amount either.</p> </section> <section id="section-6"> <p>“If I personally wouldn’t pay the fines myself, why would I certainly put my business partner in that position?” Poulter said in December 2024.</p> </section><section id="section-7"> <p>LIV Golf’s uncertain future has led both golfers to reconsider their previous stance and pay the fines, according to the DP World Tour.</p> </section><section id="section-8"> <p>Yet the fines won’t solve all ills. Each would have to serve multi-week suspensions before resuming play (thought to be in excess of two months), and neither could captain the Ryder Cup after a 2017 bylaw was established that said anyone who abandons their membership becomes ineligible to serve in a leadership role for the premier event.</p> </section><section id="section-9"> <p>–Field Level Media</p> </section></div> #Deadspin #Ian #Poulter #Lee #Westwood #pay #fines #Ryder #Cup #elusive

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