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November 20, 2025 – Cuba is facing the worst financial crisis in its recent history. According to a new study by economist Emilio Morales, the cause is not the U.S. embargo, but the absolute control exercised by the military conglomerate GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.) over the country’s finances and resources.
The report, titled “GAESA: Kleptocratic State,” confirms that GAESA—a network of companies managed by Cuba’s military elite—controls more than 70% of the national economy and 95% of all foreign-currency transactions, subordinating even the Central Bank and leaving the civilian government without effective authority over economic policy.
“The real government of Cuba is not the Communist Party—it is GAESA,” Morales states. “The country has gone from being a socialist state to a mafia state, where financial decisions serve a military minority rather than the nation.”
Among the most alarming figures is the embezzlement in a little more than a decade of more than 70 billion dollars derived from the salaries of Cuban medical personnel working abroad—funds siphoned by GAESA into hotel investments while the public health system collapsed. The study also documents the loss of international credit lines, the rise of external debt to more than 46 billion dollars, and the collapse of remittances and tourism, which have fueled runaway inflation and devastated the population’s purchasing power.
“Cuba is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Inflation has destroyed wages, and millions of Cubans survive on one meal a day. Poverty and shortages are the direct consequences of GAESA’s corrupt and monopolistic management,” Morales warns.
The report denounces that the country’s financial structure has been hijacked by an oligarchy operating under the guise of a business conglomerate, outside the oversight of Parliament, the Central Bank, or the Office of the Comptroller General.
“The only solution,” Morales concludes, “is to dismantle the power system that has turned Cuba into an impoverished military corporation and pave the way for a free, transparent, and democratic economy.”
