An undated image of Cuban General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja.- (AFP)
The dome of power in Cuba was shaken on Friday by the news of the sudden death of Division General Luís Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, head of GAESA, the business and financial conglomerate of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) that controls the main threads of the Cuban economy and its most productive branches, such as the tourism sector.
López-Calleja, 62, was a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, an adviser to the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and one of the most important men in the command structure in Cuba, at a time when the country is suffering from one of the worst crises in its history.
The official press reported "with deep regret" that the soldier died on Friday morning due to cardiorespiratory arrest, highlighting his "brilliant record of services to the homeland and the Cuban revolution."
López-Calleja was considered one of the most powerful men in the Cuban nomenclature due to the vitality of the economic branches under the control of GAESA, starting with Gaviota, the most important Cuban tourist group, in charge of hotels, travel agencies and rental services. of cars, a framework that for years has concentrated the country's main investments in this sector.
The military conglomerate also manages numerous currency stores, supermarkets, warehouses, importers, banks, real estate agencies and the country's main financial institution (Fincimex), in addition to the important Mariel Integral Development Zone.
All this and more was in López-Calleja's portfolio, which is why his surprise death has caused turmoil in the heights because he was considered one of the key men in the current and future equation of power, he was a true heavyweight .
Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja was born on January 19, 1960 in the province of Villa Clara, the son of Cristina López-Calleja Hiort-Lorenzen, full professor and doctor in Economic Sciences at the Center for International Migration Studies, and Major General Guillermo Rodríguez del Pozo (1929-2016), former combatant of the July 26 Movement and one of the soldiers close to Fidel Castro since the days of the Sierra Maestra.
Raúl Castro's ex-son-in-law, made a career within the Armed Forces always linked to the economic sector and studied Business Administration in the former Soviet Union, working for years with another important military officer close to Fidel and Raúl Castro, General Julio Casas Regueiro, head of the economic department of the FAR and founder of GAESA.
The website of the Communist Party of Cuba highlights his time at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the FAR and military counterintelligence, until in the mid-1990s he became the director of GAESA, which is undoubtedly today the
most important
holding company
from Cuba.
From that position he negotiated many of the joint ventures in the tourism sector that today are a fundamental part of the country's development strategy.
Unlike other Cuban leaders, he was always away from the foreground and shunned political prominence, exercising command from the shadows.
It was not until 2011 that he entered the Central Committee of the Communist Party and reached the Political Bureau at the VIII Congress of this political organization, last year, when he was also elected for the first time as a member of Parliament.
In recent times, López-Calleja began to have a more public profile, traveling with the Cuban president on some official visits abroad.
In 2018 she was with Díaz-Canel on a visit to New York and in 2019 she accompanied the Cuban president to Europe, forming part of the Cuban delegation that same year that participated in the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.
According to various analysts, after the final withdrawal of Raúl Castro, these movements and López-Calleja's entry into the Political Bureau and Parliament could be interpreted as a sign that his role in the future was going to be increasingly relevant.
In fact, his position was key in the midst of the economic crisis that Cuba is going through, which has caused a serious deterioration in living conditions and a notable increase in the population's discomfort.
Criticized for the opacity of its operations and for concentrating the country's largest investments in the construction of hotels at these critical times, GAESA is today one of the country's main sources of foreign currency income and has been subject to sanctions by the United States. .
Its hotels, and also the financial corporation Fincimex, have been on a Treasury Department blacklist for years.
Due to his status as head of this military corporation,
López Calleja himself was included in September 2020 by the United States Government on the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (a measure that implies the freezing of all his assets under US jurisdiction).
His surprise disappearance creates a new scenario in the structure of Cuban power.
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