MIAMI, United States.- Following the death this friday in Cuba of Division General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, CubaNet spoke with Carlos Calvo, former escort of Fidel Castro, about the struggles within the Castro nomenclature and who could hold the power that Raúl’s ex-son-in-law held.
According to what Calvo told the journalist Maite Luna, López-Calleja had not been to his office for a few days, presumably sick or in his pajamas.
“To analyze power in Cuba you have to carefully observe these unusual movements, you have to look between the lines,” he said.
“López-Calleja is a man who acquired a lot of power in Cuba, and it was a power that many of us questioned,” said Calvo, who also assured that López-Calleja was a man who knew how to show off with his father-in-law, Raúl Castro, and showed him who knew how to manage the economy, knew about the market economy, knew several languages and operated in the shadows.
“López-Calleja’s conflicts with the Cuban generalship began when GAESA reached its peak,” said Carlos Calvo, adding that Raúl’s ex-son-in-law acquired so much power and was able to do and undo as he pleased in the country because “he grew up with the Castros They saw him as a son and allowed him many things. Raúl loved him very much, and gave him a lot of power, it was then that this power began to collide with some commanders of the Armed Forces”.
López-Calleja did not usually report to anyone, not Casas Regueiro, not Leopoldo Cintra Frías, only Raúl Castro. However, Calvo pointed out, “he managed to have so much power that I imagine that he came to think that he was above Raúl Castro.”
Despite all the economic power he had until his death on July 1, the heir to the Cuban throne, says Carlos Calvo, is General Alejandro Castro Espín. “This is a monarchy,” he recalled.
Alejandro Castro went to war in Angola, he was in military academies in the former Soviet Union, it is even said that every year he meets with the team of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. The figure behind the power in Cuba is Alejandro, says the former escort.
During the interview, Calvo also revealed that in recent years family frictions have increased, including with the Castro Soto del Valle family, after López-Calleja and Gaesa also took over Palco.
“There are big fissures in power in Cuba, and López-Calleja brought more conflicts.” However, he added, now after his death his assets and the personal fortune that he amassed over the years passes to the Castros, and by this he referred to Alejandro Castro, the family executor, the one chosen to inherit power.
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