We have had an intense Plenary Session despite its brevity. The country's situation demands it, urgently requiring transformations that must not only be economic and structural but also necessitate a change in mentality regarding the forms and methods of Party work.

In a single day of meeting, we have achieved deep, critical, and, above all, responsible debates, taking advantage of the possibilities technology gives us to avoid costly personnel movements, without leaving anyone on the sidelines. But in my opinion, the greatest gain lies in the quality of the discussions, in that qualitatively superior way of addressing problems when they are touched with our own hands thanks to more frequent and systematic connection with the people.

The most advanced technology cannot surpass the value of human contact. Our most important and urgent tasks are on the ground, in the neighborhoods, the People's Councils, the municipalities, the provinces, with our ears to the ground and our foot in the stirrup, as the Army General has so often warned us.

From this indispensable bond with the people, the source of the forces that sustain the Revolution, spring the solutions to the most pressing problems. This is something we learned in Fidel's school.

This is not an elite Party; it is a Party of the masses. We cannot lead by reports; we must and have to lead with the people, looking at problems head-on and in-depth, and confronting them with the highest possible degree of popular participation. Only from a collective and committed perspective can the harsh data on the behavior of the economy in recent months be serenely evaluated, a period characterized by increased financial, petroleum, and all types of persecution against Cuba.

What would be surprising would be to have positive data in an economy brutally persecuted and besieged by the world's leading power, at a time when even the most dynamic markets are not free from the uncertainty generated by the current international economic disorder. Therefore, let us address directly and without euphemisms the impacts of this siege on the Cuban economy at the end of another tough year.

At the close of the third quarter, GDP declines by more than 4%, inflation soars, the economy is partially paralyzed, thermal power generation is critical, prices remain high, deliveries of rationed food are not met, and agricultural and food industry productions do not satisfy the needs of the population. To all this, we must add the costly losses caused by the devastating passage of Hurricane Melissa.

This situation, undoubtedly critical, demands the timely and systematic intervention of leaders and cadres to address the main problems with the population, evaluating decisions and perspectives—a fact that confirms the recognition of the authority of the institutions and, in particular, of the representatives of the Party and the Government at all levels.

This certainty, however, cannot remove us from the widespread dissatisfaction with everything that works poorly or does not work, while criticism emerges everywhere of the excessive meetings that "solve nothing," and of the growing inequality between small population groups that seem to have all their problems solved, some even flaunting their economic status, while the majority cannot fully meet some basic needs.

This situation, caused primarily by six decades of external economic harassment, is seen as a new "now or never" scenario by the historical enemy of the Cuban nation and the heirs of the so-called exile who made a fortune with the industry of counterrevolution and have never stopped dreaming of another Cuba, subjugated and dependent, nailed as just another star on the American flag.

This frustrated mercenary nightmare fuels the renewed imperial endeavor to suffocate the Cuban Revolution by applying a policy of maximum pressure, of attrition, through coercive measures that significantly limit our scope for action, halting dreams and efforts to achieve the deserved prosperity, and violating the most elementary human rights of the Cuban people with a systematic aggression supported by a cowardly and slanderous campaign of media poisoning.

The fight is hard, long, and unequal. The enemy's rule is that there are no rules. International laws, commitments to peace and development are worthless paper for the empire and its acolytes. We have seen it in Gaza and we are seeing it against Venezuela. The end justifies the means, they seem to tell us every time they act in the name of the illegal law of the strongest, although the representatives of 21st-century fascism do not even bother to explain it.

In case there were any doubts, this November laden with threats and dangers, the empire has once again disrespected the international community—or what remains of it—with its new National Security Strategy, a crude sum of the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary without makeup.

What is to be done? Lenin's classic question still includes the answer: to do, to act, to transform. Plan against plan, Martí would say. And also Fidel, who clearly summoned us "...to emancipate ourselves by ourselves and with our own efforts...", defying powerful dominant forces inside and outside the social and national sphere, defending values in which we believe at the cost of any sacrifice.

The revolutionary path will always be to act and to do so by mobilizing forces and talent with clarity in objectives, connecting the country's interests and demands with the maximum utilization of the scarce resources we have.

The revolutionary path is to rise each day willing to confront with energy the neglect and affront, the external aggression and the complex situations besieging the economies of countries like ours, which were stripped of their resources and rights more than once, and the siege especially designed to punish rebel Cuba for its daring claim to remain free, independent, and sovereign just a few miles from the empire.

The revolutionary path remains to promote and stimulate popular participation and control, highlighting and extending the ennobling experiences led by Cuban women and men, individually or collectively, not one day, but every day. What is just is to tirelessly demand that institutions provide effective and timely responses, that they be sensitive to the demands of citizens, and that public servants act as such.

And it is, above all, to go where our compatriots live, work, and study, and even where they do not, to listen and learn from those who deal daily with the greatest difficulties, and also to inform, explain, argue, guide, unblock, help organize, and promote actions that allow them to face current challenges, not as a misfortune, but as an opportunity to collectively resolve what can be resolved with our own strength and resources.

We cannot forget for a moment that under current conditions, the paralysis of many activities due to the long hours of blackouts caused by the lack of fuel, lubricants, and maintenance of thermoelectric plants completely disrupts daily life, generates uncertainty, and accentuates feelings of hopelessness, which can sometimes be reversed simply with essential and timely information, with a word of encouragement, and thanks for the much they do with so little.

I have confirmed this in visits to municipalities, the most valuable experience of political work, which teaches us the body and soul of the Cuban people, which I would never remove from my weekly agenda, because it has allowed me to reach the most remote parts of the country, to meet incredible compatriots who put solutions where others only see problems, and to reaffirm with them the vitality of the Revolution where resistance demands the most creativity.

There is poverty in Cuba, say the media created by the same people who applaud the blockade and the asphyxiation measures. Yes, there is enormous material scarcity in Cuba, generated by the genocidal policy that generously pays those who celebrate that poverty. No one can be satisfied with that, and we will work tirelessly for the prosperity this people deserves.

But alongside that poverty that the enemy of this heroic nation so likes to see, there is another reality that hatred does not allow them to see: a creative and hardworking people who do not surrender, and there are dozens, hundreds of personal and collective projects that are "breaking through the bush naked with a heart in their fist," as the unforgettable Vicente Feliú sang in his song To Those Who Fight All Their Lives.

These difficult years clearly show us the women and men who every day set out to grow and improve the country, expecting no other reward than the result of their work turned into progress. In contrast, appear those who profit from needs and shortcomings, those who hinder the path and delay progress, and others capable of selling out the nation that one day exalted them to the highest instances.

I recalled Fidel these days, and I quote: "The enemy knows all too well the weaknesses of human beings in its search for spies and traitors, but it does not know the other side of the coin: the enormous capacity of human beings for conscious sacrifice and heroism."

Fidel also said at a closing ceremony of the metallurgical congress on July 6, 1960: "Because a revolution is nothing but a great battle between the interests of the people and the interests contrary to the people [...] it teaches us which are the men and women who serve, and which are those who do not; those who are not even fit to fertilize their land with their blood and their life; it teaches us who are made of human timber, who are made of noble and generous timber; and who are made of selfishness, ambition, disloyalty, betrayal, or cowardice [...]

"In a revolution, everyone must remove their mask; in a revolution, the little altars collapse: those who have tried to live by deceiving others, those who have tried to live posing as virtuous or posing as decent people, or posing as patriots, or posing as brave. That is what the Revolution teaches us [...] it teaches us who the true patriots are [...] and where the great traitors come from."

I do not think there are more exact phrases to describe the actions of Alejandro Gil, from whose denigrating case we must draw experiences and lessons, making clear, first of all, that the Revolution has zero tolerance for such conduct.

Comrades:

The new United States National Security Strategy, a mix, as I already expressed, of the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary, with a new corollary, Trump's, promises to return the world to the dark times of Hitlerian fascism with shades of the savage conquest of the American West and practices of corsairs and pirates that gave sad fame to the Caribbean Sea in colonial times.

In an unprecedented affront to international norms, as in the times of Drake and Morgan, Donald Trump has just unleashed his pirates on a Venezuelan oil tanker, shamelessly seizing the cargo like a common thief. It was the most recent episode in an alarming sequence of attacks on small boats and extrajudicial executions of more than eighty people, under never-proven accusations and amid a threatening unprecedented military deployment in a declared Zone of Peace.

The Bolivarian Revolution is the main target of the current threatening deployment of US military vessels in what they intend to continue using as the backyard for their misdeeds. Despite numerous demonstrations inside and outside their country against war plans in the region, the occupant of the White House, his Secretary of State, and the Secretary of War do not hide to threaten Venezuela's president and any other government they consider hostile.

Cuba denounces and condemns this return to gunboat diplomacy, this threatening diplomacy, this scandalous robbery, one more on the already long list of looting of Venezuelan state assets, this unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a nation that set the course for the independence of Our America.

We are not alone in the world. We were shown this by the immense support of the international community in voting for the Cuban resolution against the blockade at the United Nations General Assembly, thwarting the aggressive and unprecedented campaign of pressures, blackmail, and coercion exercised by the United States Government to prevent the repeated result of international condemnation of the genocidal policy of the economic, financial, and commercial blockade exercised against the Cuban people and tightened at present.

We will continue denouncing the genocidal blockade and continue mobilizing international solidarity. At the same time, we will actively work to diversify economic and commercial relations and strengthen integration with the sister nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, today under a grave threat of aggression.

Comrades:

The impact of Hurricane Melissa and other natural events has been widely discussed, recognizing the people's capacity for resistance and solidarity. May that analysis serve to challenge our nature as cadres and leaders of the Party.

Just as we acted then, avoiding the loss of human lives, heroically, let us act every day, with the discipline, rigor, and courage with which the combatants and leadership teams of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior acted, whose heroism and example we thank once again.

I extend that recognition to the disciplined, conscious, and collaborative attitude of the Cuban people, of those who lost everything and did not surrender; they did not sit down to cry by the side of the flooded roads, and they have been a decisive force in the recovery of their places of residence.

The damages were devastating, which I will not detail to not extend my words too much. Nor will I detail the progress in the recovery of the eastern provinces. I only say that from the first minute, after Melissa's passage, I was accompanied by the certainty that we were going to overcome the blow, despite the difficult conditions in which the country finds itself. And that certainty was always affirmed in the quality of the troops who stood at the forefront of the hard task: the comrades of the Party and Government leadership in the nation who worked side by side, hand in hand with the presidents of the defense councils of the provinces, municipalities, and defense zones.

I know that in the heat of such intense battles there is no time to keep diaries and notes; but I trust that everyone can take a few hours to reconstruct moments and actions that will be useful in the future. We need to reconstruct the experiences to update disaster risk reduction plans. The Cuban school of disaster response must continue to be an example and set the standard in these missions, and in preparing everyone for the future threats posed by climate change.

I take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the Party, the Government, and the Cuban people, the national and international solidarity that supports the reconstruction of the most affected areas.

Comrades:

Due to its immediate, medium, and long-term importance, I must refer, albeit briefly, to the Government Program to correct distortions and re-launch the economy, whose popular discussion acquires special significance at this moment. I will not dwell on what was discussed, but I must reaffirm some considerations that I consider important to materialize into results what is proposed in that Program.

Correcting distortions and re-launching the economy is not a slogan; it is a concrete battle for the stability of daily life, so that salaries are sufficient, so that food is not lacking on the table, so that blackouts end, so that transport is revived, so that schools, hospitals, and basic services function with the quality we deserve. We have debated with harshness, without triumphalism, and we have defended an economic agenda that goes to the root of the problems and commits every organization, every territory, and every cadre.

We assume the urgent need to advance towards macroeconomic stability. This implies putting accounts in order, confronting inflation, adjusting the Budget to protect those most in need, and resolving the complex issue of the exchange rate. These are not simple or popular decisions, but a responsible Party does not bet on what is easy, but on the definitive solution of the problem. The task is to combine economic rigor with social justice, and that combination can only be guaranteed by the socialist Revolution.

We have placed food production at the center as a national priority. A strong agriculture, with local linkages, support for producers, and fewer obstacles to their management must change the landscape. Guidelines have been approved to eliminate obstacles, improve collection and marketing mechanisms, stimulate productive effort, and better accompany those who work the land.

We have also reaffirmed the decisive role of the socialist state enterprise, called to demonstrate in reality efficiency, discipline, and capacity to innovate. The autonomy we defend is to produce more, to better serve the country, to link with the non-state sector without losing its socialist essence. The message is clear: whoever directs a state enterprise must feel that every peso, every resource, every decision is a commitment to the people and not a space for privileges.

We agree that without economic efficiency, there is no possible sovereignty. Therefore, it is essential to make a leap in the management of the state enterprise. Its autonomies will be expanded, but also its responsibility for results. OSDEs must cease to be administrative structures and become true engines of development.

We also intend to enhance, in an orderly and controlled manner, the undeniable contribution of MSMEs and non-agricultural cooperatives as necessary actors to dynamize national production. Work will be done on their better integration with the state sector. To aggressively and strategically unblock foreign investment, with the goal of identifying and eliminating unnecessary procedures that scare away capital. The priority, as has been announced, is oriented towards projects that generate food, energy, and foreign currency.

To advance with determination in correcting monetary distortions, always protecting the most vulnerable. As for exchange rate unification, it is an inalienable objective for the country's economic health, which we must achieve gradually.

I have commented without many details on some ideas. To the final version of the Plan, we must dedicate hours of analysis and discussion, including the indispensable consultation with the workers. We understand that from them will emerge bold proposals on the utilization of potentialities and reserves to achieve a plan that is more concentrated on the urgent need to resolve the country's current situation.

We have also debated the State Budget and investment priorities, strategies to confront inflation, the fiscal deficit, the impact of the blockade, as well as the health crisis due to arboviruses and other public health problems.

Another axis of our discussions is the energy transition. Cuba needs to decisively advance towards a cleaner, more sovereign, and more efficient energy system. But we have made it clear that we do not want a transition that leaves behind territories, workers, or families. We want and must promote a just energy transition that generates employment, dynamizes local economies, and opens opportunities for technicians, engineers, workers, and communities.

That is why the Plenary has supported the priority for investments in renewable energies; the expansion of solar and wind energy; the more intelligent use of biomass; and energy efficiency programs in homes, businesses, and services. Every solar panel installed, every circuit modernized, every efficient equipment generalized must also be seen as a new opportunity for work, training, and productive linkages. We have insisted that energy projects include components of local employment, on-the-job training, and community participation. The battle for energy is also a battle for territorial justice.

This Plenary directs us to look with priority at the municipalities most affected by blackouts, climate vulnerability, and lack of infrastructure. There must arrive first the combination of investments, social programs, and popular participation, as proof that the Revolution abandons no one and that we do not see the energy transition as a privilege, but as a right.

Regarding social development, it remains central to the project. There is no possible Revolution without social justice. We reaffirm that, despite limitations, health and education will continue to be free and of quality for all.

Today we leave here with concrete agreements, with precise tasks, and, most importantly, with a unified action plan to face the enormous challenges that lie ahead.

Comrades:

Reviewing the implementation of the agreements from previous plenums, we recognized advances, but also, and with total frankness, we identified shortcomings, slowness, and obstacles. Bureaucratism, formalism, and inertia still put unacceptable brakes on the will of the Party and the needs of the people. Here it has been said clearly that we must change everything that must be changed, and it will be changed. We have proposed and approved work concepts, priorities, and actions. Now it is our turn to implement, work, and fulfill. Control mechanisms will be strengthened, and accountability will be profound and systematic.

Once again, a responsible and optimistic look towards Cuban youth. Cuban youth are not only beneficiaries of social policies; they are protagonists of the transformation. That is why the XI Plenary has directed that in every province and municipality, work be done together with youth and student organizations on specific plans for the labor insertion of young people, for accompanying those who neither study nor work, and for the development of productive and social ventures that channel the creativity and responsibility of the new generations. We do not resign ourselves to wasting young talent and that migration continues to be a life plan. The Revolution was born as a youth project and can only continue if young people feel it and make it their own.

Regarding Party work, we have carried out a severe balance of the actions undertaken. It is about strengthening political unity and the role of the Party in leading the country, the provinces, the municipalities, the institutions, the communities, with priority for the economic, ideological, and communication battles we are summoned to wage every day.

The people's trust in their institutions is built with facts, with tangible results, and with sensitivity to daily needs. The coordinated action to confront Melissa is the best proof of how much we can achieve with organization, discipline, and unity.

The very course of the Plenary has confirmed to us time and again that the main strength is unity. A unity based on debate, criticism, and conscious discipline.

As for media poisoning and disinformation, we already know that there is no better antidote than the truth, systematic work, and example. As commitments for the immediate present, based on what was debated here, I mention and reaffirm the following:

• Enrich and perfect the Government Program with the contribution of the results of the popular consultation being carried out.
• Advance in the implementation of the approved economic measures, with discipline and control.
• Guarantee that the 2026 Budget responds to the priorities of the people and the defense of the Revolution.
• Reinforce attention to territories affected by natural disasters, ensuring that no one is left helpless.
• Promote the active participation of youth in all spheres of national life.
• Intensify the ideological, cultural, and communication battle, defending Cuba's truth against manipulation and disinformation.

Comrades:

We have reached the end of this XI Plenary at a particularly challenging moment for the homeland. No one ignores the economic tensions, material shortages, and external pressures our people suffer; but no one can deny either the moral strength, creativity, and capacity for resistance that the Revolution has demonstrated time and again. Today this Central Committee ratifies that the Party does not place itself on the margins of problems, but at the center of their solution together with the people.

Everything we have said and agreed would be empty words if the Party does not demand of itself a different way of functioning. Recent plenums have been clear: we must combat formalism, routine, complacency, self-deception. We have spoken of criticism and self-criticism not as a ritual, but as a work method. Today we reaffirm that the sole Party of the Cuban Revolution must be more democratic in its internal functioning, closer to the real problems of people, more demanding of its cadres, and more transparent in its relationship with society.

The implementation of the agreements of this XI Plenary will not depend solely on documents and resolutions; it will depend on the daily conduct of every militant, every cadre, on the functioning of every institution in the territories, particularly in the municipalities; it will depend on the capacity to listen, to rectify, to render accounts, to tell the truth, even if it hurts, and to mobilize moral and productive reserves that are there, in the people, waiting for a leadership that summons and accompanies them.

We do not ignore the weariness, irritation, uncertainty that has settled in some sectors of society, as a consequence, first of all, of 66 years of blockade, now reinforced with notable impact on daily life; but also as a result of errors and shortcomings that still remain to be resolved. It would be irresponsible to deny that reality and overlook the quota of self-criticism we owe ourselves. But it will not be possible to confront and resolve the problems if we let ourselves be defeated by discouragement. We are the children of a people who made a Revolution 90 miles from the greatest imperial power on the planet and who have successfully defended it for more than six decades.

In closing this XI Plenary, the call is very concrete: For the cadres of the Party and the Government, we must all leave here with a realistic plan, with deadlines and responsible parties for every economic agreement adopted, and render accounts transparently of their progress and obstacles.

And, above all, the call is to unity. A conscious unity, built on truth, participation, and mutual trust. The unity we need today is that of those who debate strongly, but march together.

With that conviction and renewed confidence in the demonstrated capacity of our Cuban people to assume the greatest challenges and in the strength of our ideas, this working session of the XI Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba concludes.

Intense work awaits us. Let no one expect easy or immediate solutions. The path is one of struggle, creation, intelligent resistance, because we are guided by reason, moral strength, and a heroic people as the greatest inspiration.

In the year of the Centennial of the Commander in Chief, let us honor his memory with a permanent exercise of criticism and self-criticism, not for faults, but as a spur to transformative action. Changing everything that must be changed. Revolutionizing the Revolution, which is what is expected of us revolutionaries.

With Fidel, with Raúl, with our people!

We will overcome!

Homeland or Death!

Socialism or Death! (Exclamations of: "We will overcome!")

(Applause.)