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The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla published this Tuesday on his X account a fragment of the official statement from the Cuban Government regarding GAESA, in which the regime defends the military conglomerate as "an articulated response of proven efficiency against the economic blockade that has historically attempted to suffocate the Cuban Revolution."
The full text was published in the official newspaper Granma under the title “Cuba, the GAE and the United States: anatomy of a state slander” and constitutes the first public and explicit defense of the regime regarding GAESA more than a month after Washington made the conglomerate the central target of its sanctions.
The statement comes just three days before June 5, the deadline set by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for foreign companies and financial institutions to cease operations with GAESA under the threat of secondary sanctions announced by Marco Rubio on May 7.
The statement denies that the Business Management Group is an opaque structure or a vehicle for enriching military elites: "The GAE is not a product of secrecy, nor of elites, and much less a means of enriching a few."
The text describes Washington's measures as "the most intense, disproportionate, and dangerous escalation in the recent history of relations between Cuba and the United States," and accuses the U.S. of attempting to isolate the country "diplomatically, commercially, financially, and energetically; undermining the sustainability of the nation; conditioning dialogue, and considering options for military aggression."
The statement attributes the origin of the sanctions to "a roadmap designed by ideologues of the Cuban-American far right" and claims as achievements of GAESA the construction of more than 10,000 homes, investments in the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant in Holguín, and hydraulic works such as the East-West and North-South water transfers.
However, the statement does not provide figures, balances, or audits to support its claims, and it does not address any of the specific accusations made by Washington.
The silence lasting more than a month from the regime coincided with a rapid collapse of its hotel alliances: Iberostar abandoned the management of 12 hotels as of June 1, Blue Diamond Resorts withdrew from 62 properties, the operator Aston left six hotels, and Meliá had reduced nearly 50% of its operational capacity on the island.
This Tuesday, Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate and reiterated that GAESA controls approximately 70% of Cuba's GDP and manages assets of up to 17 billion dollars, and that Cuba will continue to be a "failed state" without a change in leadership.
The official statement concludes by quoting Raúl Castro, founder of the conglomerate in 1995 during the Special Period: the history of GAESA was built "without the slightest desire for prominence, as serious matters are done."
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