Cuba’s Military Oligarchy Hoards Billions, Traffics Its People, and Starves a Nation

The silent desperation gripping Cuba is not a consequence of economic mismanagement alone; it is the direct, calculated result of an authoritarian structure that has successfully privatized the state's most profitable assets into the hands of an immune military oligarchy. This system, often misdiagnosed as simple communist inefficiency, is in fact a sophisticated kleptocracy that deliberately engineers national poverty to maintain its own power, a chilling truth that demands global attention.

1. The Engineered Collapse: Poverty as a Policy

Cuba is enduring its most profound humanitarian and economic collapse since the Soviet Union fell. Yet, the official government narrative, led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, persistently frames the crisis as a "war economy," blaming the U.S. "blockade" (embargo). This is a vital distraction from the core, internal truth: the military controls the country's wealth.

The Military’s Shadow Government: GAESA

The true economic power lies not with the civilian government but with GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), an opaque conglomerate owned and operated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). GAESA controls the most lucrative sectors of the economy, including:

* Tourism: The major hotel chains, resorts, and tourism infrastructure.

* Logistics: The ports, import/export agencies, and customs operations.

* Finance: Key financial institutions that process the nation's dollar flow.

The Financial Sabotage: GAESA operates as a shadow central bank, holding the country's economic life hostage. It is not accountable to the Ministry of the Economy, the Central Bank, or the Comptroller General's Office. This immunity allows it to hoard hard currency while the civilian government starves for funds.

The $18 Billion Hoard: Secret financial records leaked in 2025 revealed that GAESA holds an estimated $18 billion in current assets, with a significant portion deposited in private, inaccessible bank accounts, primarily those associated with its own financial network. This massive, hidden cash hoard exists simultaneously with catastrophic national shortages. This finding establishes the direct causation of the crisis: the military elite has made the strategic decision to prioritize its own financial reserves over the basic needs of the population.

The Luxury-vs-Life Gap: While the military sits on this immense dollar reserve, it continues to invest billions in building new luxury hotels, even as the national electric grid collapses and hospitals lack basic syringes. By contrast, the investment into this tourism infrastructure far exceeds the combined budget for the nation's public health and social assistance programs, illustrating a deliberate policy of prioritizing military profit over human life.

2. The Engine of Profit: State-Sanctioned Human Trafficking

GAESA’s wealth accumulation is fueled by two primary sources: tourism and the labor export program, which has been repeatedly categorized by international bodies as State-Sponsored Human Trafficking and forced labor.

The Exploitation of Cuban Professionals

The international medical missions—Cuban doctors and nurses sent abroad—generate an estimated $6 billion to $8 billion annually, often exceeding tourism revenue. This system is engineered for state profit and total control:

* Wage Theft: The host country pays the Cuban government a full salary (often $3,000 to $8,000 USD per month). The Cuban worker is forced to surrender 75% to 90% of that pay to the state, receiving only a small stipend for living expenses.

* Coercion and Control: Doctors’ passports and credentials are confiscated upon arrival. They are subjected to surveillance by "minders" (often Cuban State Security agents) and are prevented from freely socializing with locals.

* Forced Political Work: Beyond medical duties, personnel in ideologically aligned countries like Venezuela have been reportedly coerced into political tasks, including attending pro-government rallies, spreading propaganda, and using medicine distribution to solicit votes for the ruling party, functioning as an integrated political and intelligence apparatus.

* Punishment and Family Separation: If a worker leaves the mission or fails to return to Cuba, they are labelled "deserters" and are banned from returning to the island for up to eight years, forcing the permanent, state-mandated separation of families. Furthermore, the deliberate placement of medical personnel in remote, dangerous areas has led to numerous documented cases of injury, robbery, rape, and death.

This system is the most horrific manifestation of the military state’s priorities: converting its most valuable human capital into a commodity to fund the very elite that starves the nation.

3. The Enforcer: Systemic Torture and Repression

The military oligarchy maintains control over this wealth and power structure through a brutal and systemic apparatus of repression, turning the prison system into a tool of political terrorism.

* Soaring Political Imprisonment: Since the 2021 protests, the number of political prisoners, including activists, independent journalists, and peaceful protestors, has soared to over a thousand. The regime employs criminal charges such as "sedition" and "contempt" to punish the fundamental human rights of expression and assembly.

* Specific Acts of Torture: Political detainees are subjected to harsh and systematic abuses designed to break their will and deter future dissent. These documented forms of torture include:

* Denial of Critical Medical Care: A common and fatal tool used to punish those with health issues, leading to severe deterioration and death.

* Prolonged Solitary Confinement: Prisoners are held for months in isolation under inhumane conditions.

* Brutal Beatings and Ill-Treatment: Violence by prison officials is systematically used, including specific reports of brutal beatings against high-profile opposition leaders.

* The Strip-of-Nationality Threat: In a final act of cruelty, the government has moved toward legislation that would allow it to strip Cubans abroad of their nationality if they engage in activities "contrary to the high political, economic and social interests of the Republic of Cuba." This measure serves as the ultimate weapon against dissent, threatening to sever the last legal and emotional ties to the homeland for anyone who speaks out against the GAESA oligarchy.

Conclusion: The American Question Recontextualized

The true narrative of Cuba is not merely a tale of failed socialism under the weight of an American embargo. It is a story of a state transition into a military-controlled plutocracy.

The massive suffering and economic collapse are not simply accidents; they are the direct, measurable causation of the military elite's decision to hoard the nation's wealth (the $18 billion GAESA reserve) and use the country's most valuable professionals as trafficked commodities to sustain that hoard.

The existence of a cash-rich, military-run shadow government recontextualizes the ethical dilemma of U.S. sanctions. The embargo, while clearly harming the Cuban people, is primarily criticized by the regime as a means to deflect blame from the internal corruption and theft that is actively crippling the national economy. The greatest enemy of the Cuban people is the system that forces them to starve while it builds luxury hotels with the profits of their own, trafficked labor.