At Raúl Castro’s request, it was decided to postpone the ninth Congress, hoping to “unite forces” and create “better conditions”.
14ymedio, Havana, December 14, 2025 — The 11th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba concluded on Saturday, leaving behind many slogans, lengthy ideological discussions and an almost total absence of real self-criticism. Miguel Díaz-Canel, first secretary of the PCC and president of the Republic, repeated to the party elite the same recipe that the ruling party has been distributing for decades: unity, resistance, discipline and ideological battle.
All this in a country facing its worst economic deterioration since the 1990s, a health collapse in the midst of a viral epidemic and a civic disengagement of the people that neither the Party nor the Government has managed to reverse.
At the meeting, it was agreed to postpone the organisation’s 9th Congress, originally scheduled for April 2026. The proposal was presented by Raúl Castro and announced by Díaz-Canel in a letter read to the members of the Central Committee. In the letter, Raúl Castro acknowledged the importance of respecting the usual congress schedule – every five years – but considered that, given the current “circumstances of force majeure”, it was more appropriate to devote the next year to addressing economic and social problems and to concentrate resources and efforts on “national recovery”. The decision was approved, as always, unanimously, with the official justification that it would allow for “cohesion of forces” and create “better conditions” for a more fruitful congress in the future.
The president began his speech by announcing the need to “change everything that needs to be changed,” although he immediately returned to placing the nonagenarian Raúl Castro as his ideological compass. “If we want to move things forward, the first thing we have to achieve is to make the Party’s grassroots organisation strong in every place,” he said, in a message that shifts the focus to rank-and-file members and avoids attributing structural failures to the political leadership.
The plenary session devoted much of its time to reviewing compliance with the agreements of the 8th Congress of the PCC, held in 2021, and the accountability of the Political Bureau. According to Díaz-Canel, none of these debates would make sense without a profound change in the internal functioning of the single party. “We cannot allow bureaucracy, formalism and inertia to continue to be obstacles,” he reiterated, as if it were a newly discovered diagnosis and not a historical burden spanning six decades of economic and political centralisation.
In the absence of concrete solutions to the economic crisis, the official discourse reinforced the ground where the PCC feels most comfortable: symbolic confrontation. The president insisted on the need to “intensify the ideological, cultural and communicational battle,” repeating the formula of “Cuba’s truth” in the face of “manipulation” and “media warfare.” According to him, each day of the system’s survival constitutes “a victory” against the “most powerful enemy,” even though the most pressing problems—blackouts, inflation, shortages, epidemics—have essentially domestic roots.
Those who were hoping for concrete explanations, verifiable data, or some light on the opacity surrounding the Gil case had to settle for adjectives.
Díaz-Canel dedicated five lengthy and rhetorical paragraphs to Alejandro Gil, recently sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage and other crimes. The president—who was close to the former Minister of Economy and even showered him with hugs and congratulations after his dismissal—stated: “Those who profit from needs and shortcomings appear, those who obstruct progress, those who delay advancement, and those capable of selling out the nation that once elevated them to the highest offices.”
To support that assessment, he used several quotes from Fidel Castro about those who embody “selfishness, ambition, disloyalty, betrayal, or cowardice,” and about the revealing nature of every revolution, where “the altars collapse” and “the great traitors” are exposed.
Díaz-Canel maintained that there were no more accurate words to describe Gil’s “actions” and called his case a “disgraceful” one from which the country must learn lessons. He reiterated that the Revolution maintains “zero tolerance” for behaviors like those attributed to the former minister and asserted that episodes of this kind necessitate strengthening ethical and political oversight in all institutions. However, those who were hoping for concrete explanations, verifiable data, or some clarity on the opacity surrounding the case had to settle for adjectives.
References to the “US blockade” were constant. Díaz-Canel spoke of “enormous pressure” and media intoxication capable of distorting internal perception. But even when citing the health crisis caused by dengue and chikungunya, he again placed the blame on minor organisational issues, such as a lack of personnel to fumigate, monitoring problems and control deficiencies. Not a word was said about the obvious collapse of the hospital system and the mass exodus of health professionals.
Not a word was said about the obvious collapse of the hospital system and the mass exodus of health professionals.
The president called for acting “without improvisation,” promoting “collective leadership,” encouraging criticism and self-criticism, and “confronting corruption more decisively,” even though the country’s political structure continues to lack independent mechanisms for control, transparency, or citizen oversight. In what has become a customary exercise in PCC interventions, Díaz-Canel listed problems that the system itself generates and perpetuates, but without admitting the political origin of these dysfunctions.
The plenary session also addressed the country’s economic situation, which, according to Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, is marked by a “war economy” scenario. The government’s programme to “correct distortions and revive the economy” includes 106 objectives, 342 actions and 264 indicators, a design that contrasts with the chronic lack of tangible results. The official narrative insists on the need to “prioritise tasks”, “integrate actors” and “mobilise reserves”, but the balance sheet presented confirms that the country is operating with fuel shortages, prolonged blackouts, low production levels and severe foreign exchange restrictions.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted that the last few weeks have been “extremely difficult,” marked by loss of generation and the inability to guarantee electrical stability. Not even the new photovoltaic solar parks, hailed as a strategic advance, compensate for the obsolete technology and lack of fuel that continue to cause blackouts of up to 18 hours in several provinces.
The message, identical to the one officialdom has repeated for decades, shifts attention from administrative failure to ideological loyalty.
Another critical issue addressed was the epidemiological crisis. Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda acknowledged that Cuba faces an “extraordinary” challenge, with dengue and chikungunya epidemics aggravated by a lack of supplies, fumigation equipment, laboratory reagents and basic medicines. He added that many areas have serious problems with disease-carrying mosquitoes, sanitation and water supply, a structural deterioration that the government has been unable to reverse for years. The official response, once again, insisted on “popular participation” as a solution in the absence of institutional resources.
Amid this panorama, the PCC once again placed “unity” as the cornerstone of the political project. Díaz-Canel stated that unity “is forged through participation” and that it is the guarantee that Cuba will remain “free, independent and sovereign.” The message, identical to the one the ruling party has repeated for decades, shifts attention from administrative failure to ideological loyalty. Participation, however, is limited to consultation mechanisms with no real decision-making power.
The plenary session closed with the confirmation of what had already been anticipated, namely that there will be no structural changes that alter the PCC’s political monopoly or the centralised planning that keeps the economy paralysed. Everything is focused on “correcting distortions” without touching the root of those distortions: the model itself. There is no political openness, no real economic liberalisation, no full business autonomy, and no respect for civil rights. The Party once again proclaims itself the absolute arbiter of the country’s future and the guardian of a unity that is demanded but not built on plurality.
The lack of commentary in official publications is striking, a sign of popular disinterest in this type of meeting. The system insists that the country’s problems will be solved “through our own efforts.” Cubans, who have been hearing the same thing for decades, already know the lyrics to that song, and they are fed up.
Translated by GH
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