Cuban communist regime boss says "profound changes" will come after crisis

Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel said this Wednesday that when the country overcomes the current crisis, it will be necessary to implement "deeper structural changes in order to continue advancing in the most strategic."

During a dialogue with the deputies to the National Assembly of People's Power, Díaz-Canel pointed out that the "priority" of his government is the tense economic and social situation of the island, according to reports by official media outlets.

Díaz-Canel said that he is working on the recovery of the economy with "integrity and articulation" focused on solving problems.

The dollarized economy, the depreciation of the Cuban peso, the daily blackouts and the galloping inflation have suffocated ordinary Cubans, who have very little hope that the regime can solve the serious problems faced by a society that is completely depressed socially, politically and economically.

The very serious situation that the island is experiencing with a migration that has led hundreds of thousands of Cubans to leave the island in the last 3 years, an increasingly brutal political repression and hundreds of political prisoners on the streets, seems to be in a dead end.

Canel acknowledged that there is an "economic imbalance," but explained that a macroeconomic stabilization program is being developed, which includes actions to counteract inflation, reduce the fiscal deficit, overcome the gaps between wages and purchasing power, and increase the availability of foreign currency.

As part of this program, Díaz-Canel considered "a fiscal reform, the recovery of monetary balance, macroeconomic planning and coordination, the development of markets and commercial monetary relations, the entry of foreign currency into the country and also the elements that have to do with dollarization and competitiveness".

He also urged the island to produce more food with the aim of lowering high prices and achieving a better wage-price ratio, one of the dissatisfactions that afflict the population.

"We must recover the role of the state agricultural department in food production," he stressed.

"We know that the main source of food that we are giving to the population is the basket (basic products distributed that the ration card delivers) and that it is not enough. Everything we offer is supported by imports, with more than 2,200 million dollars that we spend on this activity, because it costs us a lot to generate it," he said.

The president adnited that less and less can be bought, due to the high prices of freight and food.

Regarding the sales of products in freely convertible currency (MLC), he pointed out that it is still necessary to maintain them in order to raise foreign currency to reinvest in the economy.

Simultaneously, the Cuban parliament will hold an extraordinary session this Thursday in which it will discuss the draft Law on Social Communication, a regulation that Díaz-Canel extolled.

"For the first time in Cuba it regulates and above all stimulates the social communication of the government," which according to "Article 55 of the Constitution recognizes people's freedom of the press, a right that is exercised in accordance with the law and the purposes of society; and mandates the State to establish the principles of organization and operation for all the means of social communication”.

This report included information from EFE.