Cuban President Visits Havana Municipalities 

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, called for harnessing all the potential that exists in the municipalities and implementing the true realization of the economic and social transformations recently approved in the country there, during his visits this Thursday to the municipalities of Cerro and Marianao, two of the most populous in the Cuban capital.
In discussions with the Municipal Defense Councils of both districts, the Head of State inquired about addressing the most complex situations, which currently include electricity generation—amid a profound crisis caused by the oil embargo imposed more than six months ago by the United States government—water supply, garbage collection, local bread production, and care for vulnerable people.
He also inquired about relations with the non-state sector and its responsibility to the community; the restoration of sports areas and cultural spaces; The work of the Family Support System (SAF); summer activities; and support for young people who are neither studying nor working were discussed.
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n dialogue with leaders of the Party, the Government, the Young Communist League, and mass organizations in both municipalities, the president emphasized the need to maintain constant contact with the people, explaining, arguing, and seeking solutions that often originate within the community itself.
In both Cerro and Marianao, Díaz-Canel met with young people participating in the Community Youth Network, an innovative initiative for Cuban youth to address neighborhood problems. He learned about their work assisting vulnerable families, elderly people living alone, and pregnant women, as well as their cultural, sports, educational, and health promotion activities. 

He also insisted that “municipalities must prepare to assume municipal autonomy; local businesses must prepare to assume business autonomy; you yourselves must prepare to manage businesses with foreign direct investment, closed financing schemes in foreign currency, and businesses with Cubans residing abroad and in our own country.”
Díaz-Canel spoke about how to achieve economic partnerships between the state and non-state sectors at the municipal level, how to take advantage of currently idle productive capacities, and how to apply different business models in all areas.
In this way, the president added, we will reach a point where we unleash all productive forces at the municipal level, in order to improve, as quickly as possible, the levels of supply to the population, purchasing power, the wage-price ratio, and embark on a path that leads us to prosperity.
These exchanges, in which Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Party, also participates, began this week in Playa and will extend to the other municipalities of Havana.