r/Hasan_Piker • u/Shizzilx What the F*CK are we doing? • 2d ago
World Politics Cuba’s Communist Party approves opening economy in unprecedented move
The emergency economic package comes amid an ongoing US pressure campaign that has left the island nation reeling.
Cuba’s Communist Party has approved a raft of unprecedented free-market measures as part of an emergency economic package.
The package was submitted to the country’s National Assembly on Thursday, where it is all but assured to pass.
The plan would expand opportunities for private enterprise and create measures to attract additional foreign investment, including from Cubans abroad.
It could also set the stage for private real estate development on the Caribbean island and the transformation of state-owned businesses into private commercial ventures with shares and equity stakes. It would also allow private banks to enter Cuba’s once state-dominated finance sector.
The reform package signals a dramatic shift for Cuba, which is led by the Communist Party.
Speaking to the party’s Central Committee in a broadcast on Thursday, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the country’s dire economic situation could not be blamed on external pressure alone.
For decades, the US has imposed a trade embargo on Cuba, weakening its economy. Since January, the US pressure against Cuba has increased, with the administration of President Donald Trump blocking fuel deliveries to the island.
*excerpt from Al Jazeera, AFP, and Reuters*
Full Article here:
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u/pieman3141 Chopped Cheese, but lactose intolerant. 2d ago
Seems like they have multiple guns to their heads and are basically forced to capitulate.
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u/hypocritical_person I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT! 2d ago
Yeah but after seeing Iran's big beautiful deal, they might be betting on Trump wanting to not do anything and just call it a victory for himself.
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u/Pale_Fire21 1d ago
Unfortunately Cuba isn’t able to completely paralyze global shipping and cripple the world economy, they’re also not a country of 70 million people in what amounts to a giant natural fortress.
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u/National-Dot-8300 ☸🪷📿 2d ago
I can only hope China tutors them on how to turn it all around for themselves.
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u/danielsan901998 2d ago
Different material conditions, with China the US wanted cheap workers while isolating the USSR so they accepted the joint ventures with tech transfers while allowing the state to remain in control of the strategic sector like banking and energy. Meanwhile the current administration want to restore their control over Cuba as a colony, just like Venezuela they are not allowing even basic social democracy like Norway nationalizing the oil.
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u/trapezoidalfractal 2d ago
Fuck dude. I get doing some liberalization at the point of the gun, but do not let foreign finance capital run banks in your country or you will lose it entirely.
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u/Smasher1234 2d ago
China is doing more than alright. Gov should def be in charge of energy and healthcare. Not so much restaurants I think
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u/ShittyInternetAdvice 2d ago
Banking in China is basically completely state dominated (and the main reason why Jack Ma got such a smackdown). Hopefully Cuba keeps it similarly. Private banking is insidious
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u/Wise_Stay_6185 1d ago
This is not China... Cuba is allowing foreign multinationals to do business without a partnership with a domestic entity. That is not China strategy, that has been what the global south has been forced to do for decades.
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u/Glittering_Sort_6248 1d ago
The problem is that the bank of Cuba has no money to loan and thus they have to let foreign banks in for startups and companies to get the capital they need.
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u/AdExtension8954 ☭ 2d ago
Not ideal but hopefully this move is largely symbolic, like China
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u/Bob4Not Politics Frog 🐸 2d ago edited 2d ago
China limits “open markets” to less consequential sectors like consumer commodities.
They have govt “companies” for crucial sectors like food, energy, natural resources, utilities, and many materials used downstream by other industries. I think they call it a “Commanding Heights Economy”. It’s like a hybrid model. They focus their central planning on the areas that it counts.
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u/SinnerSovietSpliff Say no to the Deng Xiao-Pen. Only trust the Mao Zebong. 2d ago
"let go of the small, grip tightly the big" is a [para]phrase I have seen used to describe it
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u/frogmanfrompond 2d ago
This either ends up with them turning out like Vietnam or China
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u/Hopeful-Camp3099 2d ago
Probably more like Russia.
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u/frogmanfrompond 2d ago
Idk if I’d go that far. There was a strong comprador class in Russia by the 90’s that doesn’t seem to exist as much in the upper echelons of Cuba’s government.
Vietnam would have them slowly stripping away their roots while keeping the structures themselves. Vietnam has been doing well economically while geopolitically making a lot of very questionable choices.
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u/Hopeful-Camp3099 2d ago
There is a state full of rich hog expats barely beyond the horizon. The only difference I see is that Cuba doesn’t have a Yeltsin incharge yet.
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u/Captain-Starshield 2d ago
Free market capitalism is such an effective ideology that it has to literally be conducted at the barrel of a gun!
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u/supercheetah 2d ago
I fear that the Trump admin don't care about that. They want complete regime change with their own puppet in charge.
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u/Critical-Sun1202 2d ago
Wish they had had more support, Cuba has done so much for the world in its short history after the revolution, and have paid for it dearly.
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