General of Division Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja Passed Away

July 1, 2022

Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, a political figure and president of Cuba's largest business group, the Business Administration Group (Gaesa) of the Cuban military, died this Friday at age 62 from cardiorespiratory arrest.

López-Calleja was known as "the czar of the Cuban economy". His sudden death leaves a major void and will transform the dynamics of Cuban power at a moment of severe economic crisis on the island.

"We announce with sadness to our people that in the early morning hours of Friday, July 1st, General of Division Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja died of a heart attack," announced Cuban television this Friday.

López-Calleja was the president of the powerful Gaesa business conglomerate of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), one of the island's main actors in the tourism industry that manages hotels, supermarkets, communications and distribution companies, as well as Cuba's primary source of foreign currency, a key element in a country that imports 70% of what it consumes.

In 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump included López-Calleja on a U.S. blacklist, prohibiting U.S. persons or companies from dealing with him and freezing all his assets under American jurisdiction.

Since 2011, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and since 2021, one of the members of the Party's Political Bureau.

López-Calleja was born on January 19, 1960 in Villa Clara province. As a student, he held various positions in the Secondary Education Student Federation and was active in the Union of Communist Youth (UJC). After completing his training in the former Soviet Union, he joined Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Trade.

He worked in the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), where he served as liaison between the minister and the Economic Collaboration division before becoming section chief and department head. In 1990, he began working in military counterintelligence and participated in the Angolan War.

He began directing the Gaesa Business System in 1996, a position he held for almost three decades until his death.

Finally, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Party, until he reached the Political Bureau. He was also a deputy in the National Assembly and advisor to Cuba's president.

According to Miguel Díaz-Canel's Executive, "he received numerous decorations for the results of his work, among which are: the Ignacio Agramonte medals of the first class, International Fighter of the second class, for the Cuba-RPA Victory, Fighter for Production and Defense, as well as the distinctions For Service to the FAR".

López-Calleja was also married to Raúl Castro's eldest daughter, Déborah Castro Espín, with whom he had two children. After divorcing, he remained on good terms with the Castro family.

Diverse Reactions

A brief article in the party newspaper Granma regretted López-Calleja's death and praised his "brilliant service record to the Homeland and the Cuban Revolution".

"I feel profound pain in expressing my condolences and those of the Cuban people to the family and friends of Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja. We have lost a revolutionary, a man who served the homeland and the revolution on all fronts," wrote Cuban President Díaz-Canel on his social networks.

However, outside the country, there were more controversial reactions to López-Calleja's passing.

"Castroism loses a key man in its brutal machinery. General López-Calleja was in the business of power and enriched himself at the helm of the military company," said U.S. Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, of Cuban origin.

"In closed and communist regimes this could indicate that a purge is taking place and there is internal tension," opined Orlando Gutiérrez, leader of the Cuban Democratic Directorate human rights organization.

"With López-Calleja's death they will have to give water to the domino. They're left without pieces," asserted economist Martha Beatriz Roque, the only woman imprisoned by Fidel Castro during the Black Spring, as indicated by Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

A death "that shakes the political leadership on the island" according to El País

López-Calleja maintained a very low profile and rarely appeared in photos or on television, but his influence had notably increased since President Miguel Díaz-Canel succeeded Castro in 2018. He even accompanied Cuba's chief executive on some official visits abroad.

As explained by Spanish newspaper El País in an article dedicated to him this Friday, "following Raúl Castro's definitive retirement, these movements and López-Calleja's entry into the Political Bureau and Parliament could be interpreted as a sign that his role going forward would be increasingly relevant".

Archive image. President and First Secretary of the Communist Party, Miguel Díaz-Canel, waves a Cuban national flag while delivering a speech during a rally in Havana, Cuba, on July 17, 2021.
Archive image. President and First Secretary of the Communist Party, Miguel Díaz-Canel, waves a Cuban national flag while delivering a speech during a rally in Havana, Cuba, on July 17, 2021. REUTERS - ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI

According to William LeoGrande, government professor at American University of Washington, "López-Calleja played a central role in the success of foreign currency businesses under the GAESA conglomerate umbrella," adding that "whoever succeeds him, both in Gaesa and in the political bureau, will immediately become one of Cuba's most influential leaders, especially in matters of economic policy".

At a critical moment for Cuba and amid a severe economic crisis, Gaesa was "criticized for the opacity of its operations and for concentrating the country's largest investments in hotel construction at these critical times," however, as El País also reports, "Gaesa is today one of the country's main sources of foreign currency income," and López-Calleja's disappearance "creates a new scenario in Cuba's power structure".