‘The Miami Herald’ reveals that the hotel arm of the conglomerate has 4.261 billion dollars in its accounts
14ymedio, Havana, 1 January 2025 — Gaviota, one of the hotel companies owned by Gaesa — the economic and financial arm of the Cuban military — has roughly 4.261 billion dollars in “current assets.” The figure, accessed by The Miami Herald after the military conglomerate’s “rare leak of financial records,” gives an idea of the power of the Armed Forces, which several economists describe as the Island’s “parallel government.”
The amount is one of the few that the documents express in dollars. Between Gaviota and Almest, the all-powerful real estate company from which the hotel investments come, the figure totals 22,765 billion pesos.
The report, signed this Monday by journalist Nora Gámez, states that if the amount is converted into pesos using the state exchange rate of 24 pesos per dollar, the figure is close to 95 million dollars, an overwhelming number considering the extreme crisis situation in the country. Gaviota also has 51 billion pesos in “long-term or permanent investments” and 1.7 billion pesos in food.
The case of Almest, founded in 1994 as the “main investor” in Gaesa hotels, is notable in fiscal terms.
The case of Almest, founded in 1994 as the “main investor” in Gaesa hotels, is notable in fiscal terms. The company received 668 million pesos from state coffers, but paid only two million pesos in taxes, the newspaper says.
The Miami Herald points to Gaviota and Almest as the main culprits of the country’s “abrupt impoverishment” and the worsening of the current Cuban crisis. Gaesa has spent years “diverting billions of dollars of the country’s foreign exchange earnings to relentlessly build new hotels despite the deteriorating situation.”
According to economist Pavel Vidal, interviewed by The Miami Herald regarding the leak, Gaesa has not only harmed Cubans, but also the government of the regime, whose authority has been reduced to a symbolic level.
The frantic construction of hotels by order of the Armed Forces, in a context in which the economy “is falling apart,” is the greatest evidence that centralized government planning belongs to the past, Vidal believes.
Gaviota’s financial assets are, they say, 13 times greater than the amount Havana needs, but lacks, to supply the Island’s pharmacies
To underscore the contrast between Gaviota’s coffers and the government’s difficulties in sustaining the country, The Miami Herald cites Cuban authorities, who say they need $339 million annually to supply the Island’s pharmacies. Gaviota’s financial assets are, they say, 13 times greater than the amount Havana is lamenting the lack of.
Gaesa’s millions are “hidden.” The military has been clever at registering its business abroad and maintains the opacity of its transactions at all costs. In addition, thanks to its control of remittances entering the country, it has seized a large amount of foreign currency since 1990, the year it was founded, the newspaper reports.
By referring only to Gaviota and Almest, the leaked documents only offer “a glimpse” of Gaesa’s true power, The Miami Herald acknowledges. To properly gauge its reach, one would need to know the financial ins and outs of other companies under the military umbrella, such as Cimex, Etecsa, Habaguanex, Almacenes Universal and Grupo Palco.
Gaesa has also protected itself from government auditors, who are not authorized to inspect the conglomerate’s records. Not even the Comptroller General’s Office has jurisdiction over the Armed Forces, which invoke “superior discipline and organization,” as former Comptroller General Gladys Bejerano, who was dismissed shortly after the interview, admitted to EFE.
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