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

Key Points:

• Cuban lawmakers approved 176 historic free-market reforms aimed at reducing state control over the economy and attracting foreign investment, including allowing foreign investors to acquire stakes in state companies and authorizing large private enterprises.
• The reforms come amid a severe economic crisis worsened by a U.S. oil blockade and longstanding trade embargo, with Cuba facing power cuts, shortages of food, fuel, water, and medicine, and warnings from the UN about child deaths due to medical supply shortages.
• President Miguel Diaz-Canel acknowledged internal issues such as bureaucracy and slow decision-making as obstacles to economic productivity, while insisting the reforms aim to preserve socialism rather than respond to U.S. pressure.
• Analysts view the reforms as Cuba's most profound economic changes since the 1959 revolution, driven largely by external pressure from the U.S., which continues to push for political and economic change in Cuba.
• While many locals remain skeptical about the reforms' impact, Cuba’s growing small business sector has welcomed them, expressing hope for economic revival, particularly in tourism.