The publication Diálogo Américas, linked to the United States Southern Command, published this month a detailed analysis of the Cuban military conglomerate GAESA in which it describes it as a structure with no equivalent in Latin America and the Caribbean that "represents a threat to the security of the entire region."
The Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the economic arm of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), controls an estimated 40% to 70% of Cuba's formal economic activity, including ports, logistics, tourism, financial services, foreign trade, and telecommunications, all managed by the military apparatus without independent oversight mechanisms or financial transparency.
The U.S. State Department has described the conglomerate as “the heart of the Cuban kleptocratic communist system,” indicating that it opaquely concentrates the revenues from the most profitable sectors of the economy for the benefit of political and military elites, rather than the population.
The Cuban political scientist Juan Antonio Blanco, president of the study center Cuba Siglo 21, goes further in his characterization: "Over time, this institution has transformed into an octopus with many tentacles, managed outside the control of the State, while its subordination to the FAR is more nominal than real. It is a true Cuban Cosa Nostra."
Blanco also warns about the repressive dimension of the conglomerate: "It is a paramilitary complement to the repressive apparatus. When the regime needs to intervene to suppress protests or suspend the Internet, GAESA acts as a paramilitary complement in the service of the Ministry of the Interior."
The structural opacity of the group is complete. According to Blanco, "this oligopoly has offshore accounts, its shareholders are invisible, its main companies are registered in Panama under other nationalities, and they cannot be audited by either administrative institutions or the policies of the island."
Internal financial documents published by the Miami Herald revealed that in March 2024, GAESA's companies recorded assets of $17.9 billion, including over $14 billion in bank accounts, figures that illustrate the extent of economic power concentrated in military hands.
The concern of SOUTHCOM is not only economic. By controlling the main ports, logistics, and a significant portion of foreign investment, GAESA has become the privileged channel through which extraregional actors like China and Russia establish relationships with strategic sectors managed by the Cuban military apparatus.
That threat has sparked a cascading American offensive in 2026. On May 7, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced direct sanctions against GAESA and its CEO, Brigadier General Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, describing the conglomerate as "the heart of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system."
In June, Washington sanctioned the International Financial Bank (BFI) and the financial institution Rafin S.A., key entities in the regime's currency mobilization.
When GAESA tried to evade these measures by transferring the assets of the Mariel Container Terminal to a new subsidiary called Coral Marítima S.A., the U.S. responded by sanctioning both entities on July 24.
International shipping companies Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have officially suspended their operations related to Cuba following the sanctions, demonstrating the global reach of the pressure on the conglomerate.
On August 5, the Southern Command announced the creation of a joint task force with 18 allied countries to exert "sustained pressure" against networks that threaten hemispheric collective security, within the broader context of the strategy to apply pressure on Cuba.
Blanco summarizes the impact of this model on the Cuban population: "By insisting on maintaining totalitarian control over economic activity and production, this mafia-like governance regime is driving an increasing number of Cubans into misery at an alarming rate."
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