In Cuba, President Raúl Castro said Tuesday that his country’s economy contracted in 2016, as its major trading partner Venezuela suffered an economic crisis. Castro said Cuba’s gross domestic product shrank by almost a percentage point, but promised the economy would recover in 2017 without major reforms.

President Raúl Castro: “We should shake off fake fears about foreign capital. We are not headed, nor will we head, toward capitalism. We can dismiss that completely. That is what is in our constitution, and it will maintain it.”

Last year, the Obama administration restored U.S. diplomatic ties with Cuba and began easing travel and investment restrictions, but a decades-old U.S. embargo remains in place. Many Cubans blame the embargo for widespread poverty on the island. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has vowed to “terminate” the Obama administration’s improved ties with Havana unless Cuba offers what Trump calls a “better deal.”