By Roberto Morejón

After a severe year with material availabilities, Cubans hope to temper difficulties in 2023 and internalize that they will only achieve the endeavor with their own strength.

Although they celebrated the end of last year with minimal resources, the truth is that many remembered the setbacks.

The year 2022 was a period of frequent power outages, due to the generation deficit caused by financial limitations to carry out the necessary maintenance of the old thermoelectric power plants in advance.

The U.S. blockade was a blow to a country with an economy shaken by the siege and the impact of Covid-19, a drop in tourism and insufficient response from state enterprises and agriculture, in spite of strategies aimed at its revival.

A devastating hurricane and two fatal accidents forced the largest of the Antilles to concentrate on cushioning its consequences.

In the midst of hardships and with resource distribution mechanisms that were not always effective, some people became exhausted while the majority struggled to resist and create.

Reversing adversities as well as seeking prosperity in the midst of Washington's siege are commitments of Cubans.

With a marked decrease in the so-called blackouts given the first results of a strategy to reverse them, the inhabitants of this warm land reinforce their immunity against Covid-19, thanks to their own vaccines.  

Repairing schools without affecting the school year with a very high level of schooling, continuing the reduction of disadvantages in vulnerable neighborhoods and ensuring that laws and regulations encourage crops and untangle knots in state enterprises, also represent the year's challenges.

Advocating for the flourishing of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as a complement to state economic activity and increasing the contribution of each citizen, cooperatives and other forms of management, point to the fulfillment of the modest goal of a two percent increase in the Gross Domestic Product.

Cubans are also waiting for relief from the loss of purchasing power due to the uncomfortable inflation.

With their sights set on making common justice more effective, as set forth in the principles of the prevailing social project, and on expanding the channels of study and work for young people so that they may find in the country possibilities for personal fulfillment, Cubans begin 2023.

All this will be feasible by joining efforts in the right direction, concentrated, as President Miguel Díaz-Canel said, on what is certainly important, that is, to conquer the outcome of the true reserves and potentialities.