The Central Committee of Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) It will hold a new plenary session next December, following the common practice in recent years of meeting shortly before the sessions of the National Assembly.
The meeting of the party body will take place on December 12 and 13, as a prelude to the parliamentary days, with the objective of “evaluating the actions” of the Government “in the face of the immense challenges” facing the country, according to the newspaper Granma.
The agenda of the plenary session—the eleventh of the Central Committee—will focus on “important issues of the socioeconomic and political life of the nation,” according to the official call, which highlights the evaluation of the Government Program to “correct distortions and re-boost the economy,” which these days begins to debate in political and social organizations on the island.
He controversial programwhich was recently made public after being updated by the island’s Executive, contains 10 general objectives related to topics such as macroeconomic stabilization, national production, external income, the recovery of the electro-energy system and the reduction of crimes and corruption.
In addition, it has another hundred specific objectives, as well as a large number of actions, goals and indicators, and has been the subject of questioning by economists, businessmen and the population in general, both for its scope and its formulation.
Reading the Government Program: the whole and the sum of the parts
Projections for 2026
The brief convocation note indicates that the PCC plenary session “will also analyze the objectives and goals of the economy for 2026 and the State Budget proposal for next year.”
These are two government projections that will later be presented to Cuban deputies for approval, at a time when the country is going through a worsening of the economic crisis it has been suffering in recent years.
An event that has further darkened the socioeconomic panorama of the island is the devastating Hurricane Melissa, whose hit at the end of October left more than a million people affected and significant damage to homes and state entities, electrical and telecommunications infrastructure, agriculture, and the road and rail network, among other sectors.
By the way, the party meeting will evaluate the damage caused by the hurricane and “the progress of recovery in the eastern provinces”, to which is added “the situation of the effects of previous natural events” that still affect numerous people throughout the island.
Presumably, during the meeting data will be handled on the large losses caused by the meteor and the new decrease in GDP will be confirmed, which already in the first half of the year saw a new setback despite the Government’s initial projections.
The projection of economic performance for next year should also be reported, which, according to estimates from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) prior to the damage from Hurricane Melissa, it would be on the order of 0.1% growth.
Next congress
2026 should be the year of the ninth Congress of the PCC. The conclave, convened last July, is scheduled between April 16 and 19 and will also be discussed in the plenary session of the Central Committee.
According to Granma“the Political Bureau will report on its work and report on the main decisions taken at this stage, in the midst of the organizational process of the IX Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.”
This event, as recognized in its call, will take place “in one of the most complex and challenging circumstances in national history,” said the PCC, which mentioned “the permanent aggressiveness” of the United States government and the “intensification” of the economic embargo.
The note on next December’s plenary session also recalls that in 2026 the centenary of the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro will be celebrated, although it does not detail whether the activities planned by the PCC to commemorate the date will be addressed during the meeting.
Already in the previous plenary session The program for said commemoration was presented, which – as it was said at the time – “contains actions in all areas of the country’s life” and seeks to “promote the convictions and ideals” of Castro and “encourage the study and research of his thought.”
