Facing the global financial crisis, Cuba has been obliged to reform its socio-economic system in order to preserve its social model. The serious difficulties which confronted the island are explained both by external factors (mainly the sanctions imposed by the United States, the global systemic crisis and natural disasters) and by internal factors (the bureaucracy, corruption, low productivity, hypertrophy of the public sector and the lack of a culture of debate, among others). This article examines the proposed causes and prospects for the reform of the economic model presented at the 7th meeting of the Cuban Communist Party Congress and adopted by the Cuban Parliament in August 2011, after major changes resulting from a widespread popular debate.