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The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) published an open defense of the Business Administration Group (GAESA) on Facebook this week, and Cubans quickly responded with indignation.
The publication states that the GAE "was born during the Special Period to confront the economic war, with a creative, original, indigenous, and genuinely Cuban vision," and that its objective "has always been to group companies with the capabilities to generate foreign currency and resources that the State needs to maintain and develop social achievements."
But the reaction of Cubans on social media has been one of widespread rejection of the official narrative. GAESA is widely criticized for its lack of transparency and for operating outside of state control bodies, while it holds a dominant position in tourism, banking, real estate, dollarized commerce, logistics, and telecommunications.
"You have to have little shame, and fill yourself with courage and look at the destruction that exists from one end to the other in every town, in every corner of Cuba, while the elite live like millionaires," said an internet user.
"It has only served to enrich a few, allowing their children to have million-dollar businesses and attend the best universities in the world..." commented another.
A third reader said: "It’s POSSIBLE!! They keep lying!! This is the limit!!! Let’s see why they don’t take out their MILLIONS and fix the thermoelectric plants and/or buy OIL!!"; while another added: "Fix the thermoelectric plants, buy oil and food for the Cubans, come on, let’s go."
The public defense of GAESA by the regime is part of a broader communication campaign that the regime launched on June 2, when the official newspaper Granma published its first direct response to U.S. sanctions under the title "Anatomy of a State Calumny."
The text from Granma denied that GAESA enriches military elites and presented it as a funder of hospitals, housing, and state services.
The chancellor Bruno Rodríguez and militants of the PCC reiterated on social media that the GAE is a "coordinated response of proven efficiency against the economic blockade" from the United States.
The official campaign is responding to unprecedented pressure: President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14404 on May 1, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio formalized direct sanctions against GAESA, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and the company Moa Nickel S.A. on May 7.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) set June 5 as the deadline for foreign companies to cease operations with GAESA without risking secondary sanctions, an ultimatum that has already led Spanish hotel chains such as Iberostar and Blue Diamond Resorts to start adjusting or ending their ties with the conglomerate.
Rubio again criticized GAESA in the Senate this Tuesday, while the Cuban regime avoided mentioning the exodus of business partners or the impending deadline in its statements. Journalistic analyses describe the conglomerate as “the most important business monopoly in Cuba”, closely linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), while the population faces blackouts, shortages, and a sustained deterioration of basic services.
The deadline of June 5th expires this Thursday, and no official statement from the regime has acknowledged the extent of the withdrawal of international partners that the sanctions have already triggered.
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