Cuba Defends GAESA as New Sanctions Take Effect
The Cuban government issued a public defense of GAESA as the Trump administration increasingly targets the conglomerate.
In an article published in the state-run newspaper Granma, the Cuban government rejected claims that GAESA operates outside of state oversight. It described GAESA as a “well-coordinated and proven effective response to the [U.S.] economic blockade.”
Administration officials and South Florida hardliners have increasingly portrayed the conglomerate as an all-powerful institution that controls the Cuban economy while siphoning resources away from ordinary citizens.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently repeated claims that GAESA is hoarding $18 billion and that “not a penny” of it reaches the Cuban people.
The $18 billion figure — which has been parroted by politicians, journalists and pro-embargo activists — comes from dubious reporting in the Miami Herald. Last August, we took a critical look at the Herald’s reporting, which builds a series of sweeping claims on top of what appears to be an egregious accounting error.
Read our article: The Miami Herald’s Fuzzy Math Makes the Case for Economic Warfare on Cuba