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.
Among its most profitable groups is Gaviota, which manages the most productive hotels on the island and whose revenue is estimated to yield GAESA $700 million annually. Other notable entities include Tecnotex and Tecnoimport, which are involved in import and export; TRD Caribe, a chain of retail supermarkets that operate in foreign currency; the Union of Military Constructions; Inmobiliaria Almest; the company responsible for the Mariel Comprehensive Development Zone (Zdimsa); and a firm providing port, customs, transportation, and wholesale services (Almacenes Universales). Also on this list is the Cimex Corporation, which owns retail stores, gas stations, a network of cafeterias, photography studios, shipping companies, real estate firms, and banks in Cuba, among other interests, as well as Habaguanex, a corporation that belonged to the Office of the Historian of Havana and currently has more than 300 establishments, including restaurants, shops, markets, cafeterias, and 16 hotels and hostels totaling 546 rooms across various categories. For all these reasons, it has been claimed that GAESA dominates 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 who frequently visited the Castro household and married Déborah Castro Espín, the eldest daughter of Raúl and Vilma Espín. Together, they 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, which makes it common to see him accompanying his grandfather both inside and outside of Cuba.
Regarding Vilma Rodríguez Castro, in 2019 she made headlines after the extravagant mansion she owned was revealed, which 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 accommodations of a similar category 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 towards Cuba, launched a ban on U.S. companies from doing 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 "the repression and human rights violations in Cuba."
López-Calleja, a low-profile individual who avoids 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 for a meeting with Putin and to New York to attend the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations. This was interpreted as evidence that the FAR aims to seize absolute power over the island. Similarly, the newly appointed Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz comes from a long background in the tourism sector, where he served as the first vice president of the Gaviota Group, further affirming Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja as the main brain and central figure where the key pathways of the Cuban economy begin and end.
On September 30, 2020, the United States government sanctioned López-Calleja by including him on the list of individuals blocked by the Department of the Treasury (SDN), which entails the freezing of his assets under U.S. jurisdiction and a visa ban for traveling to the United States.
He passed away in Havana on July 1, 2022, due to a cardiorespiratory arrest.
