The Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this Thursday new sanctions against GAESA, the powerful Cuban military conglomerate, and described them as a direct blow to those who enrich themselves at the expense of the Cuban people while they live in misery.
"It is a sanction against this company that is stealing from the Cuban people to benefit a select few," declared Rubio, who warned that the measures imposed on Wednesday are just the beginning: "We will do more, by the way."
Rubio precisely explained the looting mechanism operated by GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.): it is a holding company created by Cuban generals that has generated billions of dollars in revenue, none of which reaches the people.
"Not a single cent benefits the Cuban people. There is the Cuban government, which has a budget, and then there is this private company that has more money than the government itself," the Secretary of State pointed out.
The official was emphatic in describing the destination of those resources: "Not a single peso of that money goes towards building a single road, a single bridge, nor to provide a single grain of rice to a single Cuban, except for those who are part of GAESA."
The sanctions against GAESA are part of Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, 2026, which expanded the framework of pressure on the regime and introduced secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions that facilitate transactions with designated entities, replicating the model used with Iran.
Alongside GAESA, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, the executive president of the conglomerate, and Moa Nickel S.A. (MNSA), a state-owned Cuban nickel mining company crucial for generating foreign currency for the regime, were sanctioned.
Rubio pointed to the financial heart of the regime by describing GAESA as "the heart of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system," a conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the island's formal economy and whose revenue triples the Cuban state budget.
In 2024, GAESA generated $5.563 billion in revenue with a profit margin of 38%, significantly higher than that of major global corporations, while accumulating estimated assets between $18 billion and $20 billion, some of which are in hidden accounts through subsidiaries in Panama, Cyprus, and Liberia.
The conglomerate charges in dollars but pays salaries in Cuban pesos, which have devalued from 24 per dollar six years ago to over 500 in the informal market, illustrating the double standard with which it operates in relation to the people.
The regime responded with defensive rhetoric. Díaz-Canel invoked the doctrine of the "War of All the People" and warned that "no aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba," while Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the measures as a "collective punishment of the Cuban people", "illegal and abusive."
The United States granted a deadline until June 5 for foreign companies to sever their ties with GAESA, a measure that could particularly impact the tourism sector and the European and Latin American commercial partners of the regime.
Rubio concluded his message with a warning that leaves no room for ambiguity: "What we are sanctioning is a company that basically takes everything that generates money in Cuba and illegally lines the pockets of a few insiders of the regime."
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