Cuba proposes sweeping reforms to socialist model amid U.S. pressure

Cuba's prime minister has proposed sweeping economic reforms, including privatization and market-oriented changes, in a bid to survive US sanctions and revitalize the socialist economy.

Cuba's prime minister on Thursday presented lawmakers ​with sweeping measures backed by the Communist ‌Party and ​former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of its socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions. The measures, if approved ‌by lawmakers and implemented, would represent the single largest change to Cuba's socialist model since former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and a major shift towards a market economy.

The reforms, presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, would open the ‌door to private real estate development on the Caribbean island, transform state-owned businesses into private commercial ventures with ‌shares and equity stakes, and allow private banks to enter Cuba's once state-dominated finance sector. The measures would also vastly reduce red tape on the island's privately held businesses and entrepreneurs.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the Communist Party politburo that the measures are urgent and necessary ⁠as the ​U.S. doubles down on sanctions ⁠aimed at crippling the country's communist leadership. “We need to unleash production, to have more output and less restriction," Diaz-Canel said in a ⁠speech aired on Thursday morning.

The list of 175 measures, presented in a nearly two-hour-long speech to lawmakers by the prime minister, ​now requires a vote of the National Assembly for implementation. The one-party, Communist-run system often votes unanimously on government ⁠proposals.

Party officials have branded the reforms as sweeping but still loyal to the government's socialist roots. Many of these open-ended proposals have ⁠lingered ​for months or years and have yet to be implemented, but pressure from the United States has once again pushed them to the fore.

Raul Castro - indicted in May in the United States on murder charges - backed ⁠the proposals in a written letter presented to the politburo on Wednesday, calling them "beneficial" and urging their speedy implementation. The ⁠Trump administration sanctions have ⁠devastated Cuba's already ailing economy, preventing oil from reaching the island, forcing an exodus of foreign businesses and decimating the all-important tourism industry.

Days-long blackouts, soaring inflation and shortages ‌of fuel, water and ‌medicine have led to widespread suffering.