By Melissa King Smith, from the National Editorial Team

The Caribbean island maintains a strong political and governmental stance focused on overcoming economic difficulties, as well as resuming the path of growth and development.

In order to exploit its potential at full capacity, the implementation of the Government’s projections to correct distortions and boost the economy continued, a strategy to face the challenges arising from an external economic war and an exacerbated global financial crisis.

According to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, although we are starting to see the results thanks to the measures taken so far, the outcome is still insufficient, “but we are not sitting on our hands.” As encouraging signs of the actions put into practice, the head of State mentioned the improvement in agricultural production this year, higher sowing volumes (the best in the last 10 years), and the reduction of the fiscal deficit with systematic work and technical rigor.

One of the most complex situations that Cuba went through in 2024 was the three-time collapse of the National Power System due to its vulnerability and shortage of fuel.

In this regard, the president explained at the 4th Ordinary Session of the National People’s Power Assembly in its 10th Legislature that a strategy was launched to expand the use of renewable energies and improve the generation capacity.

He pointed out that these actions will allow using fuels better and allocating a significant part of them to the domestic production of goods and services, which is expected to reduce imports.

Cuba also approved a financing scheme in foreign currency to support the domestic oil industry in order to increase oil and gas production.

Before more than 400 lawmakers, Díaz-Canel expressed certainty that one day we will overcome the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States and Cuba’s inclusion in the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list (according to Washington), “but the reality is that we are still under the effects of both aggressive measures.”

Díaz-Canel pointed out that the weight of global circumstances on the performance of the domestic economic should not be underestimated, and emphasized that this forces the Cuban revolutionary leadership to exercise more responsibility and self-criticism to maximize results and reduce the obstacles that impede progress.

In his opinion, progress must be made in macroeconomic stabilization, in tax discipline, in linking the state and non-state sectors to contribute to national development, as well as taking advantage of the potential to promote exports of goods and services.

CUBA VS THE US BLOCKADE

This year, amidst various difficult and emergency situations, the hostile US policy continued, including the unilateral inclusion of Cuba in the SSOT list.

According to the head of State, in these months, the essence of this criminal and genocidal blockade and the multidimensional war that we face was confirmed.

“Yes, there is a blockade; yes, the blockade has been intensified; yes, there is an economic war; yes, they despise us; yes, they poison us vulgarly, obscenely and full of hate on social networks,” he stressed at the 9th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Díaz-Canel indicated at the party meeting that Cuba is willing to talk and develop relations of respect and equality with the United States, but will not allow any attempt at interfering in its internal affairs.

“We will continue to be open to dealing with the people of the United States, (…) trying to avoid the harsh prohibitions that the government of that country imposes on its own people in order to prevent their natural connection with a worthy and friendly neighbor in the absurd attempt at preventing them from knowing the true Cuba,” he added.

Regarding the new US government, he said, “We are aware of the possible implications associated with the arrival to power in the United States of a new government, in which they will have great political influence with very aggressive intentions against Cuba.”

“As we have said, it was a foreseeable scenario and we have been preparing ourselves in advance,” he added.

In order to denounce these coercive measures, more than 500,000 Havana residents, representing all Cubans, took part in a “March of the Combatant People.”

Participants demanded the lifting of a blockade imposed for more than six decades, intensified to unprecedented levels in recent years, and Cuba’s exclusion from the State Department’s SSOT list.

At the beginning of the popular parade, Díaz-Canel stated that President Joe Biden did not reverse the policy of his predecessor, Donald Trump (2017-2021), as he promised during his presidential campaign.

With the implementation of 243 additional measures and keeping Cuba on the SSOT list, Biden complied in a disciplined and cruel way with the policy that Trump approved during his term, he pointed out.

He stressed that pointing to Cuba as a State that allegedly sponsors terrorism is at the very least false and immoral, wherever the accusation comes from, but it is doubly so when it comes from US territory.

jg/arc/mks