Juan Pablo Segura, recently appointed as the top official for U.S. policy towards Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, accused the Cuban military conglomerate GAESA of "looting" 18 billion dollars from the Cuban people and linked that assertion to the lack of oversight by the General Comptroller over its companies.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs made the accusation this Wednesday in a post from the official account of his office on X, recalling the statements made in 2024 by the then Comptroller General of Cuba, Gladys Bejerano.
"The former Vice President of the State of Cuba and General Controller of Cuba for 14 years was dismissed by the Cuban regime for publicly stating the truth: that 'the State had no jurisdiction to audit GAESA'. This is just one of the many ways in which GAESA has plundered $18 billion from the Cuban people's money," Segura stated.
The official was referring to Gladys María Bejerano Portela, who has been at the helm of the Comptroller's Office since its establishment in 2009 until July 2024, and previously served as Vice President of the Council of State.
In an interview granted to the EFE agency in May 2024, Bejerano confirmed that GAESA was not under the supervision of the Comptroller's Office.
In justifying that situation, he pointed out that the military conglomerate had a "superior discipline and organization" and that its entity concentrated its forces where it deemed advancements were necessary.
Two months later, Bejerano was replaced as the general controller after more than 14 years in office.
Segura has now directly attributed his departure to those statements regarding GAESA, although the Cuban authorities at that time presented the change as part of a "natural process of personnel renewal".
The accusation is also significant because Segura is practically new to the position. He took office last Friday as the Deputy Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, after being confirmed by the Senate.
He is the chief official of the State Department responsible for policy toward Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada.
The figure of 18 billion dollars mentioned by Segura aligns with an investigation by the Miami Herald, originally published in August 2025 and based on leaked internal financial documents from GAESA.
The newspaper obtained 22 financial statements from the conglomerate's internal accounting system for March and August 2024, some of which also included data from 2023 for comparison purposes.
The research revealed that, in March 2024 and excluding the assets of CIMEX, the analyzed companies had accumulated around $18 billion in assets that could be quickly converted to cash. The balance referenced by the newspaper placed current assets at approximately $17.8 billion.
Of that amount, approximately 14.5 billion dollars were deposited in bank accounts or in financial institutions of GAESA.
The files included balance sheets, income statements, sales, and profits of companies belonging to the military conglomerate.
According to the analysis of those documents, in March 2024, GAESA had 14.467 billion dollars deposited in banks, equivalent to 76% of its total liquidity.
The examined companies included Gaviota, CIMEX, TRD Caribe, and Almacenes Universales.
The investigation by the Miami Herald documented the extent of the resources under the control of the conglomerate and its lack of institutional oversight; the characterization of that 18 billion as money "plundered" from the Cuban people aligns with the accusation made now by Segura.
The revelations also raised questions about Havana's external debts. The funds accumulated by GAESA called into question the repeated claims by the Cuban government of a lack of liquidity to meet commitments with international creditors.
Additionally, the pressure from Washington on those resources has increased throughout 2026.
At the beginning of August, the Department of State publicly questioned why GAESA does not use its funds to address the needs of the Cuban population, after again citing the financial reserve of about 18 billion dollars revealed by internal documents.
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