14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 29 May 2025 — One of the most powerful and discreetly feared men of Castroism has died: Abraham Maciques Maciques, the great administrator behind the scene. He was 95 years old and survived almost all the purges of Castroism. He died this Wednesday in Havana, after more than six decades of juggling currency, hotels, congresses and financial fugitives.
Maciques was not a minister, nor a general nor an ideologue. He was something more useful: a precision gear in the economic machinery of the regime. A bureaucrat with a head for business, without bragging or proclaiming anything, he wove networks of power through entities like Cubalse, Cubanacán S.A. and the all-powerful Palco Business Group, from where he pulled strings for the millionaires.
He was born in 1930, in Matanzas, to a family of Jewish origin. At the end of the 50s, he was a minor sub-delegate of Tourism in his province, when he crossed paths with a young bearded man who promised to redeem Cuba by shooting left and right. The chemistry was instantaneous. Fidel Castro sent him to the Ciénaga de Zapata to settle a minor matter with coal miners, and there he was surprised by the invasion of the Bay of Pigs. The fright became confidence, and the bond with Fidel and Celia Sánchez was forged.
A bureaucrat with a head for business, without bragging or proclaiming, he wove networks of power through entities like Cubalse, Cubanacán S.A. and the all-powerful Palco Business Group
From then on, Maciques became part of that small circle that did not need a uniform to exercise power. He presided over Cubalse – a kind of exclusive consumer holding for the nomenklatura – directed the construction of the Palace of Conventions and ended up as tsar of Cubanacán S.A., the spearhead of Cuban tourism in the 80s.
It was precisely at this time that Havana became the refuge of one of the most famous financial scammers of the 20th century: Robert L. Vesco, alias the pirate banker, a fugitive from the American justice system and star of the regime. “We don’t care what he did in America. We only care about his money,” said Fidel, words that should be chiseled into marble at the entrance to the Ministry of the Interior.
Vesco landed, grew a beard so he would fit in and called himself Tom Adams, as if that would erase his record. From Palco, with Maciques as a silent partner, they set up a network that included Donald Nixon Jr. – nephew of former President Richard Nixon – and José Antonio Fraga Castro – nephew of Fidel and director of Labiofam – to promote a miraculous HIV vaccine called Troxidal. They invested $30 million. It did not cure anything, but they made history: the fraud ended with Vesco sentenced in 1996 to 13 years in prison in Cuba. Maciques, of course, came out unscathed. Fidel took care of his own, especially if they knew how to keep quiet.
Maciques handled, for decades, what might be called institutionalized elitism
From his throne in Palco, Maciques handled, for decades, what could be called institutionalized elitism: exclusive hotels, houses for diplomats, restaurants invisible to the ordinary Cuban, free zones, special services for foreign companies. Palco was a lucky country within the country, a Cuba without blackouts or lines, reserved for those who were well connected.
The Soviet collapse turned those operations into pure gold. While the people lined up for bread, Maciques administered currency, international connections and incentive packages for foreign delegations. His real position never appeared in the Official Gazette, but his power was tangible: anyone who wanted to move money or set up a fat business deal had to go through him or stay out.
In June 2021, when the generals began to shake up the “historical founders without uniform,” Maciques was silently dismissed by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz. Palco was partially absorbed by Gaesa, the military emporium that devours what remains of the national economy. There was no scandal, only a dry official notice and discreet relief. Maciques retired as he lived: without fuss, but with the certainty that his legacy had the friendship of Dalia Soto del Valle, the widow of the first Castro.
The death of Maciques does not close a chapter: it closes a library
Miguel Díaz-Canel, in his usual necrological tone of ungracious official, lamented the loss and praised his “collaboration with Fidel and Celia,” as if he were remembering the receptionist of a hotel. Palco, for its part, dismissed him with honors, recognizing him as a “founder and essential figure.” No one said what he really was: the architect of a parallel economy that kept Castroism afloat when everything else was falling apart.
The death of Maciques does not close a chapter: it closes a library. He was a man who understood better than anyone else the Cuban alchemy of mixing ideology with business, confidentiality with privilege, revolution with reserve. He survived it all: Celia, Fidel, the sanctions, Vesco, sex tourism, blackouts, reforms, the Castro nephews and Gaesa itself.
His tombstone will say that he was the “founder of Palco.” In reality, he was something else: the steward of Castroism, but without the keys to the safe.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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