Cuba announced changes at the economic level and described the situation as complex and difficult

“Complex because of the contextual and difficult elements because it requires on our part an ability to overcome adversities, situations and to face all this defamation that exists in the enormous and brutal media campaign that is being exerted on our country” , said the president. Miguel Diaz Canel during a roundtable with several members of his government which took place yesterday, but was only published today in the local press, such as the newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

Without directly mentioning the demonstrations which multiplied on Sunday and last Monday on the island, the president reviewed the causes of the current difficult situation – the American blockade, the sanctions imposed by the government of Donald Trump, the freeze on tourism with the pandemic, among others – but stressed that “They had started talking and there were signs of the intentions of the current United States administration to review certain points of the policy towards Cuba.”

Additionally, amid a record number of infections and deaths this week from the coronavirus, he highlighted the approval of the first of five vaccines that have been fully developed in the country.

“In the midst of the epidemiological situation that we are living, appear the results of Abdala who recognize it as the first vaccine in Latin America and which then allow us to take a new step to successfully face the pandemic, which is the one of the hopes that we must, as soon as possible, limit the effects of this pandemic peak “, Held.

Less optimistic were the first voices of the opposition to react to the unprecedented measures announced last night and which coincided with some of the main demands of the protesters who took to the streets this week.

“We don’t want crumbs, we want freedom and we want it now,” the Cuban journalist tweeted. Yoani Sanchez, director of opposition digital newspaper 14yMedio and one of the most listened to voices in Washington, who also wrote: “Freedom doesn’t fit in a suitcase.

The opposition Manuel Cuesta Morua, one of the organizers of the Cuba Plural platform, which seeks the authorization of the other political parties on the island, and one of those arrested during the marches on Sunday, has been released Monday.

Cuesta Morua said the government announcements are “a reaction under pressure, late” but “important”.

“However,” he added, “the deeply political reality of the demands of the July 11 protesters, which should be heard by the Cuban government, must not be masked. young people, it was freedom., freedom of expression, democratic change and something very important: the direct election of the President of the Republic ”, declared the opponent, according to the AFP news agency.

On the streets, meanwhile, some welcomed the changes.

“Right now, it takes a lot, both medically and in terms of food and hygiene as such, to be able to alleviate this situation in which we find ourselves (…) which is not at all easy. “, explained Darianna Guivert to the French. agency 32 years old, employed in the health sector.

Likewise, the 65-year-old civil engineer Agustín Salas reacted: “These measures are very good “because” they benefit the population. “But” further action is still needed. We still have to keep moving in this direction. “

Until last night’s announcement, Cuban laws allowed the non-commercial importation of 10 kilograms of drugs, tax-free, and placed limits on food and other products, for which it levied taxes.

In addition, the Minister of the Economy, Alexandre Gil, announced that “the salary scale will be phased out in the socialist state enterprise, which increases its autonomy and improves the incomes of its workers”, a central element of Cuban microeconomics.

For the economist and professor at the University of Havana Omar Everleny Pérez, these measures are “very positive” because “they relieve the population a little”, forced to queue several hours a day to find food and medications, and who have daily power outages.

The economist, who participated in the design of the economic transition initiated by the former president Raul castro and continued by his successor, Diaz-Canel, and which subsequently criticized part of its implementation and some of the effects it produced, the government should accelerate the changes that have already started.

For example, by approving the exemption from tariffs on commercial imports of private workers and the legalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, which the government has promised to do in the near future.

“New measures are to be expected because those which exist, although very positive, are insufficient to resolve the level of discontent,” he warned.