Decree 174/2026, published on 21 October, caps Cuba's local development projects at 100 hired people and a five-year life, after which a project is liquidated1. It also applies to them the private sector's banned-activity list, which Decreto 160 rewrote in August. The Ministry of Economy and Planning said the old rules had let these projects work outside limits set for private firms. The decree came 19 days after the state gazette let foreign commercial branches sell wholesale and hire Cubans, and runs the other way.
22OCT
Cuba caps local projects at 100 workers
2 min read
17:12UTC
Decree 174 limits Cuba's local development projects to 100 hired people and five years, then liquidation, and applies the private sector's banned-activity list to them.
PoliticsAssessed
Key takeaway
Cuba's local development projects now face private-sector limits and a five-year life.
Deep Analysis
In plain English
Cuba lets towns and cities sponsor local development projects: small ventures such as a bakery, a workshop or a farm supply shop, meant to create jobs and income in the municipality. A new rule, Decree 174, published on 21 October, says each project may employ no more than 100 people and must close after five years. Activities banned for private businesses are now banned for these projects too. The government says some projects had been doing things that private firms were not allowed to do.
Root Causes
Cuba built several legal vehicles for non-state activity at different times: self-employment licences, cooperatives, small and medium enterprises and local development projects. Each came with its own limits, and the Ministry of Economy and Planning says the later private-sector rules never reached the projects.
The August reform that presumed unlisted private activities permitted widened the private route. That made any vehicle with looser limits a target for firms seeking scale beyond the private cap.
Municipalities depend on these projects for local revenue, which is why the decree pairs restrictions with more municipal control over approval and financing.
What could happen next?
- Consequence
Projects above 100 hired people must shed staff or split, and some may convert to private small or medium enterprises instead.
- Meaning
Havana is aligning every non-state vehicle with the same activity list, so no vehicle offers looser limits than private firms.
Sources:Cubadebate
First Reported In
Update #15 · Cuba opens oilfields, US cuts dollar routes
Cubadebate· 22 Oct 2026
Read original →Causes and effects
This Event
Cuba caps local projects at 100 workers
Havana tightened one route to private-style activity in the same month it loosened rules for foreign sellers and oil investors.
Different Perspectives
UN General Assembly
The Assembly passed last year's resolution against the US embargo by 165 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions, and votes again on 28 October. That count is the baseline against which Havana's lobbying claims and Washington's pressure will be measured.
Mexican Navy (Secretaría de Marina)
A Mexican Navy team inspected Grace at Progreso and found fuel in its ballast tanks, according to the US Coast Guard. The account of Mexico's role comes from Washington; the Mexican government's own position on the stop is not on record in the sources reviewed.
Pedro Monreal, independent Cuban economist
Monreal says the gazette contains no rule for the exchange-house licence ADT 64 received, so nobody knows how a second firm could apply. He says a representative rate would need at least ten houses in five provinces, Havana included.
Prisoners Defenders and OCDH (Madrid-based exile monitors)
Prisoners Defenders counted a record 1,351 political prisoners at the end of September, and OCDH logged at least 344 repressive actions that month. OCDH asked the European Union on 11 September to investigate possible trafficking in Cuba's medical brigade in Italy.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier
Uthmeier announced a no-bond state warrant for Raúl Castro on 19 October over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, after reopening the state investigation last year. The four men killed flew for a Miami exile group, and the warrant restricts Castro's travel rather than reaching him in Cuba.
Cuban government (Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla)
Rodríguez said on 21 October that Washington is pressing governments to abstain or leave the hall in the 28 October UN vote and called Florida's Raúl Castro warrant worthless. Havana is presenting its October oil and trade rules as openings and the US measures as an energy blockade.
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.