Cuba Approves Emergency Economic Package as Crisis Deepens

Cuba’s Communist Party announced on Thursday an emergency economic plan that includes unprecedented free‑market measures, expanded private‑enterprise opportunities, greater municipal autonomy and incentives for foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad. The package is framed as a response to the island’s worst economic downturn in its 67‑year socialist history, marked by severe food shortages, fuel scarcity, collapsing public services and a surge in mosquito‑borne diseases.

Analysts note that the crisis follows decades of state‑run economic policy, with the population shrinking as roughly 2.75 million people have left since 2020. Poverty afflicts about 90 % of Cubans, and political repression has intensified, with reports of thousands of dissenters detained. The new reforms are modeled on limited market‑oriented changes in China and Vietnam, but observers stress they are only a first step and their implementation remains uncertain.