Related videos:
The Cuban regime published this Tuesday in the official newspaper Granma a statement titled "Cuba, GAESA, and the United States: Anatomy of a State Calumny," its first direct response regarding the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA) more than a month after Washington made it the central target of its sanctions.
The text comes three days before the deadline of June 5 set by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for all foreign companies and financial institutions to cease their operations with GAESA under the threat of secondary sanctions, amidst a massive exodus of business partners from the military conglomerate.
The statement, signed by the "Government of the Republic of Cuba," describes the U.S. sanctions as "the most intense, disproportionate, and dangerous escalation in the recent history of relations between Cuba and the United States" and accuses Washington of acting "with premeditated intent in its effort to create pretexts to discredit the Cuban Revolution."
The regime goes further, attributing to the U.S. a deliberate plan: "to diplomatically, commercially, financially, and energetically isolate the country; to make the nation's sustainability impossible; to condition dialogue and assess military aggression options."
The trigger was the Executive Order 14404 signed by Trump on May 1, which identified GAESA as a primary target and introduced secondary sanctions against any foreign actor that operated with the conglomerate.
On May 7, Secretary of State Marco Rubio formalized the designations against GAESA, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera —brigadier general of the Revolutionary Armed Forces— and Moa Nickel S.A. Washington accuses GAESA of controlling between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy and of having diverted up to 20 billion dollars in illicit assets abroad.
The regime's statement does not address any of these specific accusations. Instead, it defends GAESA as a "well-structured and proven efficient" entity that emerged during the Special Period, and lists its alleged contributions: the construction of over 10,000 homes, investments in the Felton thermoelectric plant in Holguín, and financing for hydraulic works, polyclinics, and schools.
The text quotes Raúl Castro to legitimize the organization: "without the slightest desire for protagonism, as serious matters are handled."
The regime's silence for over a month coincided with an accelerated collapse of its business model with the outside world. Iberostar ceased management of 12 hotels as of June 1, and Blue Diamond Resorts, with 62 hotels and more than 12,900 rooms, announced the complete cessation of operations on May 31.
Previously, Spanish hotel companies had already begun their withdrawal from Gaviota, the tourism subsidiary of GAESA, which managed 62 of its 121 hotels through Spanish chains.
The regime's statement does not mention the deadline of June 5 or the business exodus, and continues along the lines already established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which on May 8 accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke an "internal explosion" in Cuba to justify a military intervention.
At the beginning of May, Rubio warned that "new sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks," a warning that the regime also does not address in its statement.
Filed under: