The U.S. has arrested Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of the head of GAESA, a military-run business group which owns Cuba’s most profitable enterprises, including the island’s five-star hotels, and its largest port.   

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday (22 May) that Lastres Morera was detained by immigration agents (ICE) after he terminated her permanent resident status two days earlier on national security grounds.

“Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of the Executive President of GAESA, the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate that steals millions in aid for the Cuban people at the behest of the regime,” Rubio said in a post on X.

“Morera was managing real estate assets and living in Florida, while also aiding Havana's communist regime, until I terminated her permanent resident status,” he added. 

What is GAESA?

GAESA, which is controlled by the Caribbean island’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, was set-up in the 1990s by then Defence Minister ⁠Raúl Castro and controls vast swathes of the Cuban economy. 

Lastres Morerar’s sister, Brigadier General Ania Guillermina Lastres, who is head of the conglomerate, was hit with sanctions earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. 

The Trump government accuses GAESA of hoarding profits from the country's most valuable industries and using them for the benefit of ​the military and the Cuban elite.

ICE statement

In a separate statement, ICE, the U.S.’s immigration enforcement agency, said Lastres Morena entered the U.S. in 2023, adding that there was no record she had tried to get citizenship or applied for a U.S. passport. 

“Permitting her to remain in the U.S. and continue benefiting from access to U.S. financial, educational and social institutions risks undermining this nation’s foreign policy objectives toward Cuba,” ICE said in a statement. 

“It’s also inconsistent with ongoing U.S. efforts to impose costs on and deny privileges to networks connected to Cuban officials who act against U.S. interests."

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Cuba's leadership rarely talks publicly about GAESA, which stands for Grupo de Administración Empresarial - or 'business administration group.'

The Cuban government has long held that such discretion is necessary to confront a U.S. trade and financial blockade that severely complicates the island's business with the outside world.

Reuters was not immediately able to reach out to representatives of Morera for comment.

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