SouthernWorldwide.com – The United States has apprehended the sister of the executive president of GAESA, a vast conglomerate of military-controlled businesses in Cuba, citing her alleged connections to the communist regime.
GAESA has been implicated in reportedly misdirecting millions in aid intended for the Cuban populace “at the behest of the regime,” as stated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X Thursday.
Adys Lastres Morera was taken into custody by ICE after the State Department revoked her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, according to Rubio.
Morera, who managed real estate assets while residing in Florida, is accused of assisting Havana’s communist government, officials indicated.
The termination of her status was executed at Rubio’s directive. Morera had entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 2023, Reuters reported.
“Today, Adys Lastres Morera, a Cuban national with ties to the communist regime in Havana, was arrested following the Department of State’s termination of her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, at my direction,” Rubio stated.
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Morera is the elder sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, who was previously sanctioned this month for her role as the executive president of GAESA.
GAESA has been characterized by officials as an exploitative communist entity that diverts resources from the Cuban population.
“While the Cuban people suffer from the collapse of Cuba’s non-functioning communist economy, GAESA functions to allow a small circle of regime elites to plunder all the remaining resources of the island, squirreling away as much as $20 billion in illicit funds away in hidden overseas bank accounts,” Rubio elaborated.
He further noted that Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, as a senior executive, is responsible for overseeing international assets allegedly used to finance the “lavish lifestyles” of the Castro-era elite, and to support initiatives related to broader ideological influence abroad.
Rubio also highlighted the deteriorating conditions within Cuba, including widespread power outages and severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, asserting that GAESA is diverting resources away from essential needs under the communist system.
“GAESA’s ill-gotten riches are not spent on repairing the collapsing power grid, stocking empty pharmacies, feeding hungry families, or providing for the most basic and essential needs of the Cuban people. Instead, they are used to enrich Havana’s elites and underwrite their ongoing campaign of espionage, subversion, and revolutionary militancy against the free peoples of this hemisphere,” he concluded.
