Cuban President Explains Critical Need for Economic Reforms: On June 17, 2026, the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party approved a series of economic reforms to be considered by the National Assembly of People’s Power.The reforms come as Washington’s decades-long economic war on Cuba has devastated the island’s economy, threatening the social gains of the Cuban Revolution. In the speech published here, Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel stated, “When life for the people becomes so difficult, the primary duty of the Communist Party and the revolutionary government is not to explain the crisis better, but to change whatever needs to be changed to overcome it. The transformations we are proposing are intended to advance the defense of socialism.”