Speech by Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez – Part 1

The following is a speech by Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and the country’s president. Díaz-Canel addressed the closing of the 11th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba on December 13, 2025, in Havana.

The meeting was held amid extreme challenges facing the Cuban people, a product of more than 60 years of economic warfare by the U.S. government. The U.S. embargo is a “siege especially designed to punish rebel Cuba for its bold effort to remain free, independent, and sovereign just a few miles from the empire,” Díaz-Canel said.

Conditions of daily life in Cuba are worsening in large degree due to Washington’s economic war exacerbated by new sanctions U.S. president Donald Trump imposed during his first term in the Oval Office. Trump also added Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, severely restricting the country’s ability to conduct normal financial transactions abroad. Importing fuel, medicine, machinery, and other essential commodities has become more difficult and, in many cases, impossible. Cuba’s health care, food production, power-generating, and other sectors of its economy are being stretched to their limits.

Hurricane Melissa, which hit eastern Cuba in October, compounded these problems. It severely disrupted electricity, water, communications, and transport infrastructures. It also complicated efforts already underway to recover from two hurricanes in 2024 and mosquito-borne disease outbreaks that have affected 30 percent of the population.

In addition, Cuba now faces the massive buildup of U.S. military power in the Caribbean and escalation of threats against the sovereignty of Venezuela, one of its important trading partners on which Cuba depends for a large portion of its fuel.

With characteristic frankness, Díaz-Canel outlined the impact of this reality on Cuba and its people. “At the close of [this year’s] third quarter, the GDP has fallen by more than 4%, inflation is skyrocketing, the economy is partially paralyzed, thermal power generation is in a critical state, prices remain high; promised supplies of rationed foods are not being delivered; and agricultural and food production is not meeting the needs of the population,” he pointed out.

As a result, social inequalities in Cuba are becoming more acute. The Cuban president highlighted the “growing inequality between small population groups that seem to have all their problems solved, some even showing off their economic status, while the majority cannot fully meet basic needs.”

Díaz-Canel pointed to the social forces that can be relied on to confront this situation: Cuba’s working people and its youth. Alongside the material deprivations, there is another reality, he said: “A creative, hard-working people who do not give up.” Young people in Cuba “are protagonists of [the] transformation” that is necessary, he added. 

In October, World-Outlook interviewed Cuban historian Ernesto Limia-Díaz about the intensifying U.S. economic war against Cuba and the social problems it creates. He outlined the qualities of leadership necessary for drawing Cuba’s working people into collective discussion on how to find solutions to these monumental challenges.

In the speech that follows, Díaz-Canel also took up this question of leadership, outlining how revolutionaries must act to ensure mass participation in solving today’s immense problems.

In addition to Washington’s relentless economic war, Cuba’s president highlighted “bureaucracy, formalism, and inertia [that] are putting unacceptable brakes on the will of the Party and the needs of the people.” He added that “everything that needs to be changed must and will be changed.”

Above all, Díaz-Canel emphasized, this “means being where our compatriots live, work, and study, and even where they don’t, to listen to and learn from those who face the greatest difficulties every day.”

We publish the speech that follows for the information of our readers. The translation from the Spanish-language original is by World-Outlook, as are the subheadings, photos, and endnotes. Due to its length, we are publishing the speech in two parts, the first of which follows.

— World-Outlook editors

*

(This is the first of two parts. The second can be found in Part II.)

By Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Dear comrades and members of the Central Committee of the Party and guests:

We have had an intense plenary session, despite its brevity. That is due to the situation of our country, urgently in need of transformations that must be not only economic and structural; they also require a change of mentality in forms and methods of Party work.

In a single day of meetings, we have had in-depth, critical, and above all responsible debates, using the possibilities provided by technology to avoid expensive movements of personnel, without leaving anyone out. In my opinion, however, the greatest gain is the quality of the discussions, in that qualitatively better way of addressing problems hands-on, thanks to a more frequent and systematic connection with the people.

Not even the most advanced technology can surpass the value of human contact. Our most important and urgent tasks are in the field, in the neighborhoods, the people’s councils, the municipalities, the provinces, with our ear to the ground and our foot in the stirrup, as the General of the Army^[1] has advised us so many times.

From that essential connection with the people, the source of the forces that sustain the Revolution, come the solutions to our most burning problems; that is something we learned in the school of Fidel.^[2]

This is not a Party of the elite; it is a Party of the masses. We cannot lead by reports; we should and must lead with the people, looking at problems directly and fully, and confronting them with the greatest degree of popular participation possible. It is only with a collective, committed perspective that we can calmly assess the hard facts of the economy’s performance in recent months, characterized by greater financial, oil and all types of persecution of Cuba.

It would be surprising to have positive data in an economy brutally persecuted and besieged by the world’s leading power, at a time when not even the most dynamic markets are free of the uncertainty created by the current international economic disorder. Therefore, let us address directly and without euphemisms the impact of that siege on the Cuban economy as we come to the end of another tough year.

At the close of the third quarter, the GDP has fallen by more than 4%, inflation is skyrocketing, the economy is partially paralyzed, thermal power generation is in a critical state, prices remain high; promised supplies of rationed foods are not being delivered; and agricultural and food production is not meeting the needs of the population. Added to all of that are the costly losses caused by the devastation left in Hurricane Melissa’s path.

This undoubtedly critical situation requires timely and systematic involvement of leaders and cadres to address the main problems, evaluating decisions and perspectives, thereby validating the authority of our institutions, and especially, of Party and government representatives at every level.  

General discontent and growing inequality

This conviction, however, cannot distract us from the widespread discontent caused by everything that is functioning poorly or not functioning at all, while criticism is emerging from all quarters about the excessive number of meetings that “don’t solve anything,” and the growing inequality between small population groups that seem to have all their problems solved — some even showing off their economic status — while the majority cannot fully meet basic needs.

This situation, caused above all by six decades of external economic harassment, is being viewed as a new “now or never” scenario by the Cuban nation’s historic enemy and the heirs to the so-called exile that made a fortune in the business of counterrevolution, and that have never stopped dreaming of another Cuba, subjugated and dependent, pinned like one more star on the U.S. flag.

That frustrated mercenary nightmare is feeding a renewed imperial effort to strangle the Cuban Revolution by applying a policy of maximum pressure, of attrition, through coercive measures that significantly limit our scope of action, holding back dreams and efforts to achieve our well-deserved prosperity, and violating the most elemental human rights of the Cuban people with systematic aggression, supported by a cowardly, slanderous campaign of media intoxication.

The fight is hard, long, and unequal. The enemy’s rule is that there are no rules. International law and commitments to peace and development are meaningless for the empire and its acolytes. We have seen it in Gaza, and we are seeing it against Venezuela. The ends justify the means they seem to be telling us every time they act in the name of the illegal law of the jungle, although the representatives of 21st century fascism don’t even bother to explain it.

Just in case anyone had any doubts, during this November full of threats and danger, the empire has again disrespected the international community — or what’s left of it —with its new National Security Strategy, a crude combination of the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary,^[3] with no attempt to dress it up.

What is to be done? Lenin’s classic question continues to include the answer: do, act, transform. Plan versus plan, as Martí^[4] would say. And also Fidel, who clearly called upon us to “emancipate ourselves on our own, through our own efforts” in defiance of powerful dominant forces within and outside of our social and national sphere, defending the values in which we believe at whatever cost in sacrifice.

The revolutionary thing will always be to act

The revolutionary thing will always be to act, and to do so by mobilizing forces and talent with clear objectives, connecting the country’s interests and demands with the maximum use of the scarce resources we have available.

The revolutionary thing is getting up every day ready to energetically confront apathy and effrontery, external aggression and the complex situations that besiege the economies of countries like ours, which were stripped of their resources and rights more than once, and the siege especially designed to punish rebel Cuba for its bold effort to continue being free, independent, and sovereign just a few miles from the empire.

The revolutionary thing continues to be promoting and encouraging the people’s participation and control, highlighting and extending uplifting experiences led by Cuban women and men, individually or collectively, not once but every day. Justice requires us to tirelessly demand that institutions give effective and timely answers, that they be responsive to the demands of citizens, and that public servants act as such.

And it is, above all, being there where our compatriots live, work and study, and even where they don’t, to listen and learn from those who face the greatest difficulties every day; and it is also to inform, explain, argue, guide, unlock, and help to organize and drive forward actions that will allow them to take on the current challenges, not as misfortune, but rather as an opportunity to collectively solve whatever can be solved through our own strengths and resources.

We cannot forget for a minute that in today’s conditions, the halt of many activities because of long hours of blackout — due to a lack of fuel, lubricants, and maintenance of thermoelectric plants — completely disrupts everyday life, creates uncertainty, and accentuates feelings of desperation, which at times can only be reversed with essential and timely information, a word of encouragement, and gratitude for all they do with so little.

I have confirmed it on visits to the municipalities, the most rewarding experience of political work, the one that shows us the body and soul of the Cuban people, the one I would never remove from my weekly schedule, because it has allowed me to reach the furthest corners of the country, to meet incredible compatriots who provide solutions where others only see problems, and to confirm with them the vitality of the Revolution where resistance demands the most creativity.

There is poverty in Cuba, say the media outlets every day, outlets created by the same people who applaud the blockade and suffocating measures. Yes, there is enormous material scarcity in Cuba, generated by the genocidal policy that generously pays those who celebrate this poverty. No one can be satisfied with that, and we will work tirelessly for the prosperity that this people deserve.

A creative, hard-working people who do not give up

But alongside that poverty that the enemy of this heroic nation so enjoys seeing, is another reality that their hatred does not allow them to see: a creative, hard-working people who do not give up, and there are dozens, hundreds of personal and collective projects that are “breaking ground, in the raw, and with a heart in their fist,” as the unforgettable Vicente Feliú^[5] sang, in his song “A los que luchan toda la vida” [To Those Who Fight All Their Lives].

These difficult years clearly show us the women and men who set out every day to grow and improve their country, expecting no reward other than the results of their work turned into progress. In contrast, there are those who profit from need and insufficiencies, who block the way and delay the advance, and yet others capable of selling out the same nation that once exalted them to its highest offices.

I was reminded these days of Fidel, and I quote, “In their search for spies and traitors, the enemy knows all too well the weaknesses of human beings, but it does not know the other side of the coin: the enormous capacity of human beings for conscious sacrifice and heroism”.

Fidel also said, during the closing session of the metal industry congress, on July 6, 1960:

“Because a revolution is nothing more than a great battle between the interests of the people and the interests that go against the people… It shows us which men and women are worthy, and which are not; those that are unfit even to fertilize their land with their blood and their lives; it shows us which are made of a human mettle, which are made of a noble and generous mettle; and those that are made of selfishness, ambition, disloyalty, treason, and cowardice…

“In a revolution, everyone must remove their mask; in a revolution the little pedestals collapse: those who have tried to live by deceiving others, those who have tried to live posing as virtuous or posing as decent people, or patriots, or courageous. That is what the Revolution shows us… It shows us who the true patriots are… and where the biggest traitors come from.”

I do not think there is a phrase more exact to describe the actions of Alejandro Gil,^[6] from whose denigrating case we must draw experiences and lessons, making clear, first of all, that the Revolution has zero tolerance for this type of conduct.

Shades of brutal conquest and piracy

Comrades:

The new National Security Strategy of the United States combines, as I mentioned, the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary, with a new corollary — that of Trump — and promises to return the world to the dark times of Hitlerian fascism, with shades of the brutal conquest of the American West and the practices of the corsairs and pirates that made the Caribbean Sea notorious in colonial times.

In an unprecedented affront to international norms, like in the times of Drake and Morgan,^[7] Donald Trump has just launched his pirates on a Venezuelan oil tanker, shamelessly seizing its cargo like a common thief. It was the most recent episode in an alarming sequence of attacks on small boats and extrajudicial executions of more than eighty people, under accusations that have never been proven and amid a threatening military deployment without precedent in a declared Zone of Peace.^[8]

The Bolivarian Revolution^[9] is the main target of the current threatening deployment of U.S. military ships in what they intend to continue using as the backyard of their misdeeds. Despite numerous demonstrations within and outside their country against war plans in the region, the occupant of the White House, his Secretary of State and his Secretary of War make no secret of their threats against Venezuela and any other government they consider hostile.

Cuba denounces and condemns this return to gunboat policies, this threatening diplomacy, this scandalous theft — one more in the now long list of plunder of the assets of the Venezuelan state, this unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a nation that charted the path for the independence of our America.

We are not alone in the world. The immense support of the international community was demonstrated to us by voting for Cuba’s resolution against the blockade in the United Nations General Assembly,^[10] thwarting the aggressive and unprecedented campaign of pressure, blackmail and coercion carried out by the United States government to prevent a repetition of international condemnation of the genocidal policy of economic, financial, and commercial blockade against the Cuban people, now intensified.

We will continue denouncing the genocidal blockade, and we will continue mobilizing international solidarity. At the same time, we will work actively to diversify our economic and trade relations and to strengthen our integration with sister nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, which today is under serious threat of aggression.

The people’s capacity for resistance and solidarity

Comrades:

We have discussed extensively the impact of Hurricane Melissa and other natural events, recognizing the people’s capacity for resistance and solidarity. Let that analysis cause us to challenge our nature as cadres and leaders of the Party.

Just as we acted then, heroically preventing the loss of human lives, let us act every day, with the same discipline, rigor, and courage shown by the combatants and leadership teams of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, whom we thank once again for their heroism and example.

I extend that same recognition to the disciplined, conscious, and collaborative attitude of the Cuban people; of those who lost everything and did not surrender; they did not sit down to weep on the banks of flooded roads, and they have been a decisive force in the recovery of their places of residence.

The damages were devastating, and I do not go into detail so as not to prolong my remarks. I also will not speak in detail about recovery progress in the eastern provinces. I will only say that from the first moment, following Melissa’s passing, I was certain that we were going to overcome this blow, despite the country’s difficult circumstances. And that certainty was always reaffirmed by the quality of the troops that placed themselves at the head of that arduous task: the comrades, women and men, of the nation’s Party and government leadership, who worked side by side, hand in hand, with the presidents of the provincial and municipal defense councils and defense zones.

I know that in the heat of such intense battles there is no time to keep diaries and notes, but I trust that everyone can take a few hours to reconstruct moments and actions that will be useful in the future. We need to reconstruct these experiences to update our disaster risk reduction plans. The Cuban school of disaster response must continue to set an example and lead the way in these missions, and in how all of us prepare for future threats posed by climate change.

I would like to take this opportunity to express gratitude, on behalf of the Party, the government, and the Cuban people, for the national and international solidarity that is supporting reconstruction in the most affected zones.  

(This was the first of two parts. The second can be found in Part II.)

NOTES

[1] Raúl Castro, a lifelong leader of the Cuban Revolution, was the former Commander of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces and served as the country’s president prior to Díaz-Canel. He holds the title General of the Army, Cuba’s highest military post.

[2] Fidel Castro was the central leader of the Cuban revolution. He served as Cuba’s president from 1976 until his  retirement in 2008. He died in 2016.

[3] First articulated by then-president James Monroe in 1823, when nearly all Spanish colonies in the Americas had either achieved or were close to achieving independence, the Monroe doctrine asserted that any further efforts by European powers to control or influence sovereign states in the region would be viewed as a threat to U.S. security. 

The Roosevelt Corollary refers to the 1904 policy articulated by then-president Theodore Roosevelt. It asserted the right of the U.S. government to intervene in Latin America to protect the interests of big business in the United States. 

“The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine” was outlined in the document National Security Strategy 2025 released by the White House in November.

[4] José Martí, born in Havana in 1853, was a poet and essayist who died in battle in 1895 fighting for Cuba’s independence from Spain. His patriotism and martyrdom made his name a symbol for liberty throughout Latin America. He is considered Cuba’s national hero.

[5] Vicente Feliú Miranda (1947 – 2021) was a Cuban musician, singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His was one of the voices representative of the Nueva Trova movement, which emerged in the 1960s in the wake of the Cuban Revolution and combined popular forms of music with progressive themes and lyrics.

[6] Alejandro Gil, Cuba’s economic minister from 2018 to 2024, was sentenced December 9, 2025, to life in prison for espionage, with a concurrent sentence of 20 years for bribery and corruption.

[7] Francis Drake and Henry Morgan were English privateers. Both pirates became infamous raiding and plundering Spanish targets in the Caribbean, including settlements in Cuba; Drake was active during the 1570s and Morgan nearly a century later in the 1660s.

[8] In 2014, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) declared the Caribbean and wider Latin American region a Zone of Peace. The agreement represented a commitment among these states to resolve differences peacefully, respect sovereignty, and reject foreign military intervention and bases.

[9] The Bolivarian Revolution refers to the process of social change in Venezuela and the reassertion of its sovereign rights initiated in the 1990s during the presidency of Hugo Chávez. It is named after Simon Bolívar, a Venezuelan military officer who led the fight for independence in the early 1820s in the region encompassing Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru,  and Venezuela today.

[10] In October 2025, the United Nations General Assembly voted for the 33rd time to condemn “the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.” See World Votes with Cuba to Demand an End to U.S. Blockade.

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