Cuban Economist Humberto Pérez González, Former Head of JUCEPLAN, Dies at 89

June 30, 2026

Cuban economist Humberto Pérez González, who headed Cuba's now-defunct Central Planning Board (JUCEPLAN) from 1976 to 1985, died on Saturday, June 27, 2026, in Havana at the age of 89.

The news was announced on Facebook by fellow economist and researcher Julio Carranza, who highlighted Pérez González's influence on the island's economic development and his role in reorganizing the country in the years following the failed Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest.

Born on December 6, 1937, in Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus province, Pérez González joined the 26th of July Movement as a young man and fought in Column 8 under Che Guevara. After 1959 he trained as an economist in the Soviet Union and, as head of JUCEPLAN, became one of the architects of the centralized economic system that governed Cuba through the 1970s and 1980s. He was also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and Vice President of the Council of Ministers.

In 1986 he was removed from his post during the "rectification of errors and negative tendencies" process launched by Fidel Castro. According to Carranza, Pérez González continued sharing his experience until his final days and, together with other economists, helped draft an economic reform proposal that was submitted to the Cuban government without ever receiving a response.

Pérez González's death comes just days after the Cuban government approved a package of 176 measures aimed at changing the country's economic direction.