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The revelations about GAESA's multimillion-dollar reserves have brought the issue of opacity in the Cuban economy to the forefront of the debate.
A new analysis by economist Pedro Monreal pointed to the legal root that allows for such obscurity: the General Comptroller of the Republic is prohibited from auditing the military conglomerate that controls most of the foreign currency in the Island.
It is not about a void, but about a shield tailored to the needs of power.
The legal "trap"
In his article, Monreal recalled that in most countries, legal exceptions are established to keep matters of defense or national security confidential, but not for hotels, chains of stores in foreign currency, or car dealerships.
In Cuba, it is enough for an entity to be part of the military hierarchy to evade public scrutiny.
The key lies in the Law of Oversight 158/2022, which replaced the regulation from 2009 and removed all references to the term "audit" in the case of armed institutions.
What was previously subject to review by the Comptroller's Office—albeit under "internal regulations"—is now solely in the hands of the President of the Republic, who receives an annual report and decides at their discretion whether to order actions for "prevention and control."
As of today, ten days after the revelations from the Miami Herald, neither the ruling Miguel Díaz-Canel -who, by law, should be the one to address the issue- nor any of the ministers and high-ranking officials of the government have issued any statement regarding this alleged corruption scandal at the top of the Cuban regime.
The outcome of the new legal framework established in 2022 is clear: GAESA is not obligated to report to either the National Assembly or the General Comptroller, the bodies that, in theory, exercise the “highest level of oversight” in the country.
Setback in oversight
The comparison between the two laws is revealing. Law 107/2009 established that the results of internal audits of the armed institutions had to be reported to the General Comptroller, and that the then-President of the Council of State could order audit and control actions.
The new law of 2022 further reduces the scope of oversight: not only does it eliminate the position of auditor, but it also diminishes the role of the Comptroller's Office in relation to the National Assembly. What was once its "primary goal and mission" in 2009—to assist Parliament in its highest form of oversight—now appears merely as one of its functions.
Meanwhile, the Assembly is indeed reviewing civil ministries such as the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Transport, Agriculture, or Food Industry, which are required to report their contributions to the budget and their results with foreign investment.
GAESA, on the other hand, remains off the radar despite managing strategic and multimillion-dollar sectors.
A "fig leaf" for GAESA
The difference is not coincidental. Monreal described it as a "tailor-made suit": a framework specifically designed to separate GAESA's civil activities—selling imported chicken, managing supermarkets, operating vacant hotels—from parliamentary scrutiny.
The example is striking. While the Ministry of Food Industry must account for its efficiency and fiscal contribution, GAESA allocates billions to luxury hotels that remain half-empty and will never have to explain why or how much it actually contributes to the national budget.
In practice, a political opacity has been institutionalized, disguised as legal norms, which places the military conglomerate beyond any citizen oversight. The formula is simple: to rely on the status of "armed institution" to evade any accountability.
The underlying political problem
What is at stake is not just an accounting issue. The lack of state auditing over GAESA means that the conglomerate, which controls the majority of the country's foreign currency income, is not subject to any democratic oversight.
The National Assembly, transformed into a formal body without the ability to oversee, cannot investigate the use of those foreign currencies nor demand explanations about failed investments or economic priorities.
For Monreal, this demonstrates a deliberate political decision: to keep GAESA shielded from public scrutiny. By removing the term "audit" from the 2022 law and restricting information to the President of the Republic, an opaque system is created that reinforces the power of the military-business elite and marginalizes citizens.
"He who makes the law makes the loophole", summarized the economist. The loophole is to protect the economic heart of the regime under the pretense of being an "armed institution," even though its real business is not tanks or airplanes, but supermarkets, hotels, and remittances converted into foreign currency.
Beyond the economy
The case of GAESA shows that the crisis of transparency in Cuba is deeper than what official reports suggest.
It is not just about knowing whether there are 18 billion in hidden bank accounts, but rather acknowledging that the political system has created legal mechanisms to prevent any real scrutiny.
Ultimately, GAESA's shielding is not an accident but a state policy. A policy that places the military conglomerate above accountability, parliamentary oversight, and citizen control, making it clear who truly holds power in Cuba and why opacity is not a flaw of the system, but its essence.
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