In the last decade, the advancement of local development has become one of the most relevant trends in the transformations experienced by the Cuban development model. Now the municipality is recognized as a relevant place in the country's sociopolitical system, as defined by Article 168 of the Constitution of the Republic, which supports municipal autonomy and the legal personality of municipalities. A variety of legal, institutional, and public policy transformations position municipalities in a very different place than the one granted to them by the preceding model, markedly more centralist and vertical. As expected, there are many tensions that accompany this process of change. This contribution is also about them. The transformations narrated here take place in the context of a difficult economic and social situation that affects the country and of course also local development.