‘Criminals in power’: Members of Congress react to news of Cuban military’s secret hoard
Cuban American Republican members of Congress from Miami said they will work to freeze Cuban government assets abroad and put more pressure on foreign governments helping the regime in Havana, after a Miami Herald investigation revealed that the Cuban military has hoarded billions of dollars sitting in unknown bank accounts.
The Herald obtained secret accounting documents from GAESA, the conglomerate run by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, showing that it had $18 billion in current assets in March last year, of which $14.5 billion were deposited in unidentified bank accounts and GAESA’s financial institutions.
The Herald’s reporting raises questions about the government’s narrative blaming the U.S. embargo as the exclusive cause of the country’s severe economic crisis and the Cuban military’s role in the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
GAESA runs businesses in several sectors, including tourism, banking, trade and retail, and can tap into many of the island’s revenue streams in foreign currency. The military conglomerate and several of its companies are under U.S. sanctions--meaning their assets in the U.S., if any, are frozen--but even so, it has managed to generate billions in revenue, the documents show.
GAESA’s financial statements obtained by the Herald show the conglomerate made $2.1 billion in net profits during the first quarter of 2024 and $7.2 billion during the first eight months of 2023, all while the island’s electrical grid collapsed repeatedly and the government asked the United Nations for humanitarian aid to provide milk to young children.
Reacting to the revelations, Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, said he would work with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Cuban American, to “hold the regime and its accomplices accountable.”
“The regime in Cuba is not only murderous and cruel, but profoundly corrupt,” Giménez told the Herald. “The dictatorship is quick to blame U.S. policy for its woes, but it has billions of dollars tucked away in banks while the Cuban people suffer. These funds were stolen from the Cuban people, and we will use all the diplomatic and legal tools available to freeze the regime’s assets and shame complicit foreign governments who profit off the continued oppression of the Cuban nation.”
To implement a recent presidential memorandum, U.S. agencies are expected to issue regulations that would allow imposing secondary sanctions on foreign companies engaging in transactions with Cuban military-owned entities.
U.S. Rep Mario Díaz-Balart said a bill he introduced last month to fund the State Department and other foreign operations for fiscal year 2026 would deny U.S. aid to governments or entities engaging financially with military-run entities in Cuba.
“While the regime in Havana blames the embargo, secret records show the Cuban military is swimming in cash,” Díaz-Balart said on a publication on X. “My Appropriations bill makes sure not a dime from the U.S. taxpayer supports them and blocks aid to anyone bankrolling or doing business with the regime’s oppressive security forces — full stop.”
U.S Rep. María Elvira Salazar took issue with the Cuban government’s denunciations of the U.S. embargo, which Cuban officials say denies the government the resources to buy foo and medicines and maintain the power grid.
“Cuba’s real blockade is the Cuban dictatorship,” she said in an X publication commenting on the Herald story. “While the regime blames the U.S. for blackouts, hunger, and medicine shortages, it’s sitting on billions through its military empire, GAESA. That money isn’t used to feed the people or fix the grid, it’s used to suppress them.”
“The Castro mafia doesn’t need help, they need to be eradicated from power and held accountable,” she added. “Cubans’ suffering is not caused by the embargo. It’s caused by the criminals in power.”
While that sort of rhetoric coming from Miami politicians usually prompts a reaction on government-controlled media in Havana, the Cuban government has been conspicuously silent. The Cuban government has also not responded to the information reported by the Herald about GAESA’s finances.
GAESA’s finances are treated as military secrets, are not shared with other ministries or government agencies and are outside the purview of the government’s comptroller, who is not authorized to audit them.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to a request for comment for the story, nor the country’s government comptroller, and the social media accounts of senior diplomats who actively comment on U.S-Cuba relations or revelations published in U.S. media have been muted on the subject.
On Tuesday, when the Herald published the investigation, Cuba’s leader Miguel Díaz-Canel tweeted about sports, the birthday of a renowned Cuban choir director and the war in Gaza.
On Friday, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs shared the Herald investigation on X with the comment: “GAESA is hoarding billions while the Cuban people lack food, medicine, and electricity. If the Cuban military’s secret war chest isn’t addressing the people’s needs – what is it being used for and who really is running Cuba?”
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM.