Division General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja died on Friday in Cuba, according to an official report released by the island’s state press. He died as a result of cardiorespiratory arrest. He was 62 years old.
Rodríguez López-Calleja served as the executive president of the Business Administration Group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (GAESA), the economic arm that controls much of the national economy.
“It is with deep regret that we inform our people that in the early hours of the morning of this Friday, July 1, as a result of a cardiorespiratory arrest, Division General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, executive president of the Business Administration Group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces,” indicated a brief note from the official media Cubadebate.
He was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (the only legal one in Cuba) and a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power.
In 2020, the Trump administration sanctioned López-Calleja for his leadership of GAESA, the Cuban military-controlled umbrella company with interests in the tourism, financial investment, import/export and remittance sectors of the Cuban economy.
A press release from the State Department stated at the time that GAESA revenues are used “to oppress the Cuban people” and to finance “the parasitic and colonial domination of Venezuela.”
GAESA’s portfolio includes businesses incorporated in Panama to circumvent US restrictions.
Some biographical information
López Callejas was born on January 19, 1960 in the municipality of Santa Clara, province of Villa Clara. He attended higher education in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
For a time, he served as liaison for the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar) with the organization’s Economic Collaboration directorate. In 1990 he joined the Military Counterintelligence and joined the troops deployed by Cuba in Angola. He held various positions in the Minfar.
In 1996 he was appointed to lead GAESA. He was advisor to the president of the Republic of Cuba.
Close to former President Raúl Castro
Little is known about the life of most of the Cuban leaders and military and their families. But in 2021, a nephew of General López Calleja left the country and revealed some details of the life and alleged threats he would have received from a cousin, son of the general and grandson and personal escort of former Cuban President Raúl Castro.
“They are waiting for all those dinosaurs to die,” actor and audiovisual producer Carlos Alejandro Rodríguez Halley, nephew, told the media in November 2021. of the late General Rodríguez López-Calleja. He was referring then to the historical generals of the revolution, whose ages are between 80 and 90 years old.
López-Calleja was married to one of Castro’s daughters and his late wife Vilma Espín.
“My uncle Luis Alberto always lived apart from the family. I imagine that after he married Déborah (Castro Espín), Raúl Castro’s eldest daughter, he became a member of the royal family, as many people say,” he said. last year Rodríguez Halley, who lives outside of Cuba.
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