Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja (Cuba, 1960-2022). Major General of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Executive President of the Business Administration Group, S.A. (GAESA or GAE), considered a powerful military consortium of the armed forces that controls a significant portion of the most important sectors of the Cuban economy.
Entre sus grupos más rentables se encuentra Gaviota, que maneja los hoteles más productivos de la isla y cuya facturación se estima deje a GAESA 700 millones de dólares anuales, Tecnotex y Tecnoimport – importación y exportación, TRD Caribe – supermercados minoristas de venta en divisas, Unión de Construcciones Militares, la Inmobiliaria Almest, la compañía responsable de la Zona de Desarrollo Integral Mariel (Zdimsa) y una empresa de servicios portuarios, aduanales, de transporte y de venta al mayor (Almacenes Universales). Se suman a esta lista la Corporación Cimex, que posee en Cuba tiendas minoristas, estaciones de combustible, red de cafeterías, estudios fotográficos, navieras, inmobiliarias y bancos, entre otros intereses y Habaguanex, corporación que pertenecía a la Oficina del Historiador de La Habana y que la actualidad suma más de 300 instalaciones entre restaurantes, tiendas, mercados, cafeterías y 16 hoteles y hostales que llegan a 546 habitaciones, de diferentes categorías. Por todo esto se ha llegado a afirmar que Gaesa domina el 70% de la economía de la isla.
López-Calleja is the son of Major General Guillermo Rodríguez del Pozo, head of the Medical Services of the FAR and the National Defense Civil Staff, a man close to Raúl Castro. A military man like his father, he frequently visited the Castro household and married Déborah Castro Espín, the firstborn of Raúl and Vilma Espín, with whom he had two children: Vilmita Rodríguez Castro and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo" for being born with six fingers on one hand and the head of Personal Security for the former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, making it common to see him accompanying his grandfather both within and outside of Cuba.
Regarding Vilma Rodríguez Castro, she made headlines in 2019 when it was revealed that she owned a lavish mansion that she rented out through the AIRBNB platform in the Miramar neighborhood for $600 a night. Thanks to this platform, it was also confirmed that she owned other luxurious properties on the island for the same purpose, and that she herself was a user of the site, booking accommodations of similar caliber in places like Geneva, Paris, and New York.
In 2016, the name López-Calleja appeared in the list of the most corrupt men in the world compiled by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). According to statements made in 2018 by U.S. diplomat Roger Noriega, who served as ambassador to the Organization of American States and as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs during George W. Bush's administration, Cuban military personnel, under López-Calleja's command, were allegedly directly involved in cocaine trafficking from the Venezuelan port of La Guaira to Europe and West Africa.
Donald Trump, in his shift in policy towards Cuba, announced a ban on U.S. companies doing business with Cuban companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), using GAESA as a starting point due to its role in enriching the Cuban military, which Trump holds responsible for what he terms "the repression and human rights abuses in Cuba."
López-Calleja, a man of low profile, elusive before cameras and the press, and rarely making public appearances, was seen as part of the delegations led by ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, which traveled to Russia to meet with Putin, and to New York for the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations. This was interpreted as evidence that the FAR aims to seize absolute power on the island. Similarly, the newly appointed Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz comes from a long career in the tourism industry, where he served as the first vice president of the Gaviota Group, further confirming Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja as the main mastermind and the central figure where the primary pathways of the Cuban economy begin and end.
On September 30, 2020, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on López-Calleja, adding him to the list of blocked individuals by the Department of the Treasury (SDN), which entails the freezing of his assets under U.S. jurisdiction and a ban on visas for travel to the United States.
He passed away in Havana on July 1, 2022, due to cardiac arrest.
