Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja

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 large part of the most important sectors of the Cuban economy.

Among its most profitable groups is Gaviota, which manages the most productive hotels on the island and whose turnover is estimated to bring GAESA 700 million dollars annually, Tecnotex and Tecnoimport – import and export, TRD Caribe – retail supermarkets selling in foreign currency, Unión de Construcciones Militares, Inmobiliaria Almest, the company responsible for the Mariel Comprehensive Development Zone (Zdimsa) and a port, customs, transportation and wholesale services company (Almacenes Universales). Added to this list are the Cimex Corporation, which owns retail stores, fuel stations, a network of cafes, photography studios, shipping companies, real estate agencies and banks in Cuba, among other interests, and Habaguanex, a corporation that belonged to the Office of the Historian of Havana. and that currently there are more than 300 facilities, including restaurants, shops, markets, cafes and 16 hotels and hostels that reach 546 rooms, of different categories. For all this, it has been stated that Gaesa dominates 70% of the island's economy.

López-Calleja is the son of Division General Guillermo Rodríguez del Pozo, head of the FAR Medical Services and the National Civil Defense General Staff, a man close to Raúl Castro. A soldier like his father, he frequented the Castros' house and married Déborah Castro Espín, the first-born of Raúl and Vilma Espín, with whom he had two children: Vilmita Rodríguez Castro and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “El Cangrejo” for having been born with six fingers on one hand and head of Personal Security for former Cuban ruler Raúl Castro, which is why he frequently sees him accompanying his grandfather in and out of Cuba.

As for Vilma Rodríguez Castro, in 2019 she made the news after the lavish mansion she owned that she rented through the AIRBNB portal in the Miramar neighborhood for $600 a night came to light. Thanks to said portal, it was also possible to verify that she owned other luxurious properties on the island that she used for the same purpose and that she herself was a user of said website, hiring accommodations of a similar category in places such as Geneva, Paris and New York.

In 2016, López-Calleja's name appeared on the list of the most corrupt men in the world prepared by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). According to statements in 2018 by the American diplomat Roger Noriega, who served as ambassador to the Organization of American States and as undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs during the term of George W. Bush, Cuban military, under the command of López- Calleja, would be directly involved in cocaine trafficking from the Venezuelan port of La Guaira to Europe and West Africa.

Donald Trump, in his change of policy towards Cuba, launched the ban on United States companies from doing business with Cuban companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), taking GAESA as a starting point due to the enrichment of the military. Cubans, whom Trump blames for what he calls "the repression and violations of human rights in Cuba."

López-Calleja, a man with a low profile, evasive in front of the cameras, the press and not very fond of making public appearances, appeared as part of the delegations that, led by the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, traveled to Russia, where they met with Putin , and to New York to attend the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. This was interpreted as evidence that the FAR intends to seize absolute power on the island. Likewise, the recently appointed Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz comes from a long career in the world of tourism where he served as first vice president of the Gaviota Group, which once again confirms Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja as the main brain and axis where they begin. and the main roads of the Cuban economy end.

On September 30, 2020, the United States government sanctioned López-Calleja, including him on the list of people blocked by the Treasury Department (SDN), which implies the freezing of his assets under US jurisdiction and the ban on travel visas. To united states.

He died in Havana on July 1, 2022, due to cardiorespiratory arrest.