The legal norm maintains central control and shields the process as “irrevocable.”
MIAMI, United States. – The Council of Ministers approved the Decree 140/2025published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba (ordinary edition) of last December 29, with which the Government claims to establish the “general bases” of a gradual process of decentralization of powers and transfer of resources from national organizations to the municipality and “exceptionally” to the province.
The standard defines decentralization as the transfer of “functions, powers, activities, responsibilities, structures and resources” and emphasizes that it will be carried out “gradually and in stages”, with “binding effect for all those who participate”.
The text, signed by the prime minister of the Cuban regime, Manuel Marrero Cruzpresents as its essential objective “implementing municipal autonomy” through a distribution of powers between levels of government that, according to the decree itself, must contribute to a “comprehensive, harmonious and sustainable development of the country.” At the same time, it conditions this transfer to be accompanied by “the structures, workers and financial and material resources directly linked” to the transferred services, with the promise of ensuring “their continuity and efficiency.”
However, the institutional design that sets the standard preserves political-administrative command at the central level. The Council of Ministers “has the governing role of the decentralization process” and reserves the approval of “the powers to be decentralized” and “the terms for their execution”, in addition to “any other essential aspect linked to this issue.” In practice, the decree does not announce what specific powers will be transferred or with what exact resources, but rather leaves this content to subsequent decisions by the Government itself.
The law also creates a “Temporary National Decentralization Commission”, of a governmental nature, “in charge of directing, promoting and controlling” the process, and places it under the presidency of “a deputy prime minister”, who “defines the integration” of the body. The Commission will have a “Technical Secretariat” directed by the head of the Directorate of Attention to Local Bodies of Popular Power.
The decree also empowers the president of the Commission to invite other representatives of state institutions or academics, which opens the door for consultations, but always under the leadership of the Executive.
At the declarative level, the standard lists principles such as “graduality”, “flexibility”, “heterogeneity” and “subsidiarity”, and maintains that the process must consider the well-being and “quality of life of people”. One of the most sensitive points is that it qualifies the final result as “definitive and binding” and states that, “once the process is completed, it is irrevocable, it cannot be subject to subsequent changes.” This clause, presented as a guarantee of stability, functions as a political shield against future corrections, even though the norm itself recognizes that the process depends on “the needs and capacities of the different territories.”
The decree also establishes that “the powers granted directly” to the central organizations by the Constitution and points out that “all competence that can be exercised at the municipal level” is decentralized, with the possibility of “shared” schemes between the municipality, province and nation “when the sector or activity justifies it.” At the same time, it explicitly excludes strategic and highly sensitive areas for daily life and the economy, including “monetary, exchange, financial, tax and banking policies”, “land use planning and urban planning”, “telecommunications”, “water”, “non-renewable natural resources”, “hydrocarbon refining” and “defense and national security”, in addition to “others to be determined by the Council of Ministers”.
Regarding implementation, the standard distributes obligations between national organizations and local structures, but always framed by central control. It imposes on the agencies of the Central Administration of the State, among others, the task of “dictating (…) the regulatory provisions necessary to implement the process”, “training the territories” and “executing (…) the process (…) within the foreseen term.” The local administrative bodies of Popular Power are assigned responsibilities such as creating a territorial commission, participating in “conciliation” to determine powers and resources, and informing the population about the actions of the process.
The decree includes an explicit reference to “transparency”, attributing to the Commission the function of “guaranteeing transparency and access to information in the decentralization process.” However, the text does not describe specific accountability mechanisms, publication of detailed schedules, compliance indicators or citizen complaint channels. In practical terms, transparency is formulated as a general mandate, without verifiable procedures in the standard itself.
The transitional provision sets a period of “up to 90 days” from the approval of the decentralization process to carry out a “structural, organizational and functional reorganization” in central agencies, local bodies and other institutions. In the final provisions, the decree gives the president of the Commission “up to 30 business days” from publication to define the composition of that body and tasks him with issuing implementation regulations in “up to 30 business days.”
He Decree 140/2025 It was approved in the Palace of the Revolution on November 21, 2025 and published on December 29.
