The United States continues to ratchet up its pressure on Cuba. U.S. immigration authorities on Thursday arrested in Miami the sister of the executive president of GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), the Cuban military conglomerate. According to a statement released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the detainee, Adys Lastres Morera, sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, described as “responsible for managing GAESA’s internationally held illicit assets,” had been a permanent resident since 2023. ICE said Lastres Morera had not applied for U.S. citizenship and will remain in custody until she is deported.
In an ICE statement, John Condon, head of Homeland Security Investigations, said that Adys Lastres Morera’s presence in the United States could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” He added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had “determined that she is removable under the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
“Allowing Lastres Morera to remain in the country would send a signal that Cuban regime-affiliated networks could continue to access the U.S.’s financial, educational, and social institutions — but that is not the case,” he said.
Rubio confirmed the announcement on social media, claiming that Lastres Morera was “managing real estate assets while also aiding Havana’s communist regime.” He also asserted that he personally had revoked her permanent residency. “There will be no place on Earth, much less in our country, where foreign nationals who threaten our national security can live in luxury,” he said.
GAESA is a conglomerate controlled by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. Its portfolio spans a vast range of companies, from hotels to telecommunications, retail chains, gas stations, and the state bank that handles all of Cuba’s international transactions. Among its best‑known subsidiaries are the tourism and hotel group Gaviota and the retail and logistics chains CIMEX and TRD. GAESA also controls remittances, free‑trade zones, and real‑estate projects.
U.S. authorities estimate that GAESA operates as “a state within the state,” controlling 70% of the Cuban government’s assets, valued at roughly $20 billion. Meanwhile, the population faces a severe economic crisis marked by near‑constant blackouts and shortages of water, food, and medicine.
The conglomerate has long maintained an opaque profile regarding its structure and leadership. For years, it was headed by Raúl Castro’s son‑in‑law, General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López‑Calleja, who died in 2022. The United States has imposed sanctions on GAESA and the officials who run it.
The arrest comes at a moment of heightened tension between Washington and Havana. On Wednesday, May 20 — Cuba’s Independence Day — the Department of Justice indicted former president Raúl Castro (2008–2018), now 94, with murder and other crimes for the 1996 shoot‑down of two planes belonging to the exile group Brothers to the Rescue, in which four people were killed.
The Pentagon also confirmed Thursday that one of its aircraft carriers, the USS Nimitz, is operating in international waters in the Caribbean near the island.
The crisis in Cuba has worsened since January, following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela — until then Havana’s main ally and supplier of subsidized oil. Weeks later, Trump imposed an energy blockade through an executive order, threatening tariffs and sanctions on anyone supplying crude to the island. Mexico, which had been sending oil to Cuba at preferential prices, stopped doing so. Authorities said last week that all fuel reserves had been exhausted.
In a message released Wednesday, Rubio proposed a “new relationship” for relations with the island, conditioned on reducing the military’s control over the Cuban economy, and blamed the government of Miguel Díaz‑Canel and GAESA for the island’s crisis.
In the five‑minute address, Rubio said Cubans are enduring 22‑hour daily blackouts while political and military leaders live in luxury. “As you know, better than anyone, you have been suffering from blackouts for years. The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people,” he said, denying that the total energy blockade imposed by Washington plays any role.
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