Cuba approves 176 free-market reforms to ease economic crisis

Cuban lawmakers Thursday adopted nearly 200 free-market reforms aimed at pulling the island out of a severe economic crisis worsened by a U.S. oil blockade.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero presented 176 measures to the National Assembly that would reduce the state's role in the economy and open sectors from banking to tourism and agriculture to outside investment.

Foreign investors will no longer need to form joint ventures with the state. Large private businesses will be allowed, and both Cuban and foreign investors will be permitted to buy stakes in state companies.

The changes come as the United States keeps up pressure on the island. President Trump has spoken openly about taking over the Caribbean nation, which lies 90 miles from Florida.

London-based Cuban economist Daniel Torralbas called the reforms the most profound since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Lawmakers approved the package by a unanimous show of hands. The session closed with President Miguel Diaz-Canel repeating Castro's slogan: "Socialism or death!"

Marrero gave no timetable for carrying out the measures. Diaz-Canel had said Wednesday that "urgent changes" were needed to avoid economic collapse.

The oil blockade imposed by Mr. Trump in January, after the ouster of Cuba ally Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, has brought the economy to the brink. It has forced the Communist Party to accept steps it once rejected.

Havana has long blamed its problems on the more than 60-year U.S. trade embargo and, more recently, the oil blockade. Diaz-Canel acknowledged that some "obstacles" come from inside the country, not from outside pressure.

He pointed to "slowness, bureaucracy and norms that impede those who want to produce" and to "decisions that we have put off."

"Their backs are up against the wall as never before," Michael Bustamante, Cuban studies chair at the University of Miami, told Agence France-Presse. "They're in the uncomfortable position of making changes to their economic model, seemingly because of the pressure that's being exerted on them by the United States."

Diaz-Canel said the government was "not doing this because of pressure from the Yankees," but to "preserve" socialism.

Only one oil tanker, from Russia, has reached Cuba since the start of the year. Power cuts lasting more than 30 hours have become routine. Food, fuel, drinking water and medicine are scarce.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that "children are dying" because of shortages of medical supplies and medication.

Bank worker Victor Hierrezuelo, 63, told AFP that without reforms "the revolution will collapse!"

It remains unclear whether the changes will satisfy Mr. Trump, who is also pressing for new Cuban leaders.

Asked Thursday whether Cuba was now a target after the Iran war deal, Vice President JD Vance said Washington wants Cubans to be "happy and successful."

"We're actually talking to the Cuban government right now about how they could change their ways to change that," he added.

Last month the United States indicted former President Raúl Castro on charges tied to the 1996 downing of two civilian planes flown by a humanitarian group. In early May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana and met senior officials. Multiple sources told CBS News that Ratcliffe brought a paramilitary leader who took part in the mission to capture Maduro.

Many residents, worn down by weeks of blackouts that spoil food, called the reforms too little, too late. The small business sector welcomed them.

"They offer hope," said Mario Gonzales, 32, manager of a restaurant in Havana's old town, who hopes for a rebound in tourism.