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Official Gazette publishes Law 186: Cuba reorganizes its government into 20 ministries
Ordinary Official Gazette 90, dated November 2, publishes the Law on the Organization of the Central State Administration, approved on July 30, which sets the number of ministries at 20 and redistributes powers, according to elTOQUE and Periódico Cubano.
Ordinary Official Gazette 90, dated November 2, 2026, publishes Law 186 on the Organization of the Central State Administration, approved by the National Assembly of People's Power on July 30, 2026, according to elTOQUE and Periódico Cubano. Its article 19 sets the number of ministries at 20.
elTOQUE describes the law as the deepest redesign of Cuba's executive apparatus in years, with mergers of agencies, redistribution of powers and the creation of portfolios that did not exist under those names. The law responds to article 146 of the Constitution, which requires the composition and functions of that structure to be defined by law.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food concentrates livestock, sugarcane and forestry production, the food industry, sugar and its by-products, beverages and fishing, functions previously split among Agriculture, the Food Industry and the now defunct Ministry of Sugar. The new Ministry of Economy and Finance merges the functions of Economy and Planning with those of Finance and Prices: planning, the budget, taxes, prices, government accounting, public credit, insurance and investment policy.
The Ministry of Industries and Construction groups the electronics, light, metalworking, chemical, pharmaceutical, steel and construction materials industries together with all construction activity. The Ministry of Environment, Habitat and Water Resources adds to environmental protection the areas of land-use planning, urban planning, the land registry, housing, water infrastructure and access to drinking water.
According to elTOQUE, article 92 assigns that environmental ministry the tasks of approving and overseeing the national housing development programme, directing the legal side of housing administration and guaranteeing access to drinking water and sanitation; it also empowers the ministry to propose registering in the state's name vacant lots, apartment buildings, tenements and homes held under lease or usufruct.
Periódico Cubano listed the agencies that cease to exist as independent entities, among them the ministries of Agriculture, the Food Industry, Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Domestic Trade, Economy and Planning, Finance and Prices, Higher Education, Science, Technology and Environment, Industries and Construction, as well as the Institute of Information and Social Communication, formerly the ICRT. Cuba's Central Bank keeps its status as a body of the Central State Administration, headed by a minister-president, without being classified as a ministry.
Sources: elTOQUE · Periódico Cubano
Data updated: 2026-11-02T19:00:00.000Z