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), regarded as a powerful military conglomerate of the armed forces that controls a significant portion of the most important sectors of the Cuban economy.
Among its most profitable groups is Gaviota, which manages the island's most productive hotels and is estimated to generate 700 million dollars annually for GAESA. Other key companies include Tecnotex and Tecnoimport, which handle import and export; TRD Caribe, which operates retail supermarkets selling in foreign currency; the Unión de Construcciones Militares; Almest Real Estate; the company responsible for the Mariel Comprehensive Development Zone (Zdimsa); and a company providing port, customs, transportation, and wholesale services (Almacenes Universales). Also included are Corporación Cimex, which owns retail stores, gas stations, a cafeteria network, photography studios, shipping companies, real estate businesses, and banks, among other interests, and Habaguanex, a corporation that belonged to the Office of the Historian of Havana and currently oversees more than 300 establishments, including restaurants, shops, markets, cafes, and 16 hotels and hostels with a total of 546 rooms across different categories. Because of all this, it has been stated that GAESA controls 70% of the island's economy.
López-Calleja is the son of Major General Guillermo Rodríguez del Pozo, head of the Medical Services of the FAR and the National Civil Defense Staff, a close associate of Raúl Castro. Like his father, he was a military man and frequently visited the Castro household. He married Déborah Castro Espín, the eldest daughter of Raúl and Vilma Espín, with whom he had two children: Vilmita Rodríguez Castro and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “El Cangrejo” because he was born with six fingers on one hand. He is also the Chief 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.
As for Vilma Rodríguez Castro, she made headlines in 2019 when it was revealed that she owned a lavish mansion that she was renting 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 similar accommodations in places like Geneva, Paris, and New York.
In 2016, the name López-Calleja appeared on 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 toward Cuba, implemented a ban on U.S. companies conducting business with Cuban companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), using GAESA as a starting point due to its enrichment of the Cuban military, which Trump holds responsible for what he calls "repression and human rights violations in Cuba."
López-Calleja, a low-profile man who is elusive in front of cameras and the press, and rarely makes public appearances, was seen as part of the delegations led by the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel that traveled to Russia, where they met with Putin, and to New York to attend the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations. This was interpreted as evidence that the FAR intends to seize absolute power on the island. Similarly, the newly appointed Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz comes from a long background in the tourism sector, having served as the first vice president of the Gaviota Group, further confirming Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja as the main mastermind and key figure at the starting and ending points of Cuba's primary economic pathways.
On September 30, 2020, the United States government sanctioned López-Calleja by 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 to travel to the United States.
He passed away in Havana on July 1, 2022, due to a cardiorespiratory arrest.
