Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, executive president of the Armed Forces Business Administration Group (Gaesa), died in Havana this Friday of “cardiorespiratory arrest,” according to reports the official press.
Former son-in-law of Raúl Castro, he joined the list of deputies last octoberwhen he joined Parliament in a ceremony in Remedios (Villa Clara).
Former division general and born in 1960, the soldier was elected with 98.5% of the votes cast by the delegates and replacing the late Antonio Pérez Santos. Until then, López-Calleja had been a man with a discreet profile and, although he was a member of the Central Committee of the Party and executive president of Gaesa, the all-powerful military conglomerate, he had remained in the shadows.
Some analysts wanted to see his irruption on the political board as a master move by Raúl Castro
In September 2020, the US placed it on the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list, a list that includes individuals and organizations with which US citizens and permanent residents are prohibited from doing business and which It also implies freezing the accounts you have in that country.
His leadership in Gaesa, which controls currency stores, hotels, real estate investments, construction companies, port services, remittance and currency exchange agencies, customs services and electronic commerce, made him the head of the Cuban economy, all under the military boot.
Some analysts wanted to see his emergence on the political board as a master move by Raúl Castro, a theory according to which Díaz-Canel is a burned-out politician who enjoys no popular acceptance and must be replaced soon. For López-Calleja, death has frustrated any chess move.
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