Washington Tightens Restrictions on Cuban Intelligence, Security & Military Entities Profiting From Visiting Tourists 3

List of Restricted Entities and Subentities Associated With Cuba as of November 15, 2018

Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
November 15, 2018

Below is the U.S. Department of State’s list of entities and subentities under the control of, or acting for or on behalf of, the Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or personnel with which direct financial transactions would disproportionately benefit such services or personnel at the expense of the Cuban people or private enterprise in Cuba. For information regarding the prohibition on direct financial transactions with these entities, please see the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security website. All entities and subentities were listed effective November 9, 2017, unless otherwise indicated.

*** Entities or subentities owned or controlled by another entity or subentity on this list are not treated as restricted unless also specified by name on the list. ***

Ministries
MINFAR — Ministerio de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias
MININT — Ministerio del Interior

Holding Companies
CIMEX — Corporación CIMEX S.A.
Compañía Turística Habaguanex S.A.
GAESA — Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.
Gaviota — Grupo de Turismo Gaviota
UIM — Unión de Industria Militar

Hotels in Havana and Old Havana
Aparthotel Montehabana (Habaguanex)
Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski (Gaviota)
H10 Habana Panorama (Gaviota)
Hostal Valencia (Habaguanex)
Hotel Ambos Mundos (Habaguanex)
Hotel Armadores de Santander (Habaguanex)
Hotel Beltrán de Santa Cruz (Habaguanex)
Hotel Conde de Villanueva (Habaguanex)
Hotel del Tejadillo (Habaguanex)
Hotel el Bosque (Habaguanex)
Hotel el Comendador (Habaguanex)
Hotel el Mesón de la Flota (Habaguanex)
Hotel Florida (Habaguanex)
Hotel Habana 612 (Habaguanex)
Hotel Kohly (Habaguanex)
Hotel Los Frailes (Habaguanex)
Hotel Marqués de Prado Ameno (Habaguanex)
Hotel Palacio del Marqués de San Felipe y Santiago de Bejucal (Habaguanex)
Hotel Palacio O’Farrill (Habaguanex)
Hotel Park View (Habaguanex)
Hotel Raquel (Habaguanex)
Hotel San Miguel (Habaguanex)
Hotel Telégrafo (Habaguanex)
Hotel Terral (Habaguanex)
Iberostar Grand Packard Hotel (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Memories Miramar Havana (Gaviota)
Memories Miramar Montehabana (Gaviota)
SO/ Havana Paseo del Prado (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018

Hotels in Santiago de Cuba
Villa Gaviota Santiago (Gaviota)

Hotels in Varadero
Blau Marina Varadero Resort (Gaviota) (also Fiesta Americana Punta Varadero effective November 15, 2018)
Grand Memories Varadero (Gaviota)
Hotel Las Nubes (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Hotel Oasis (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Iberostar Bella Vista (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Iberostar Laguna Azul (Gaviota)
Iberostar Playa Alameda (Gaviota)
Meliá Marina Varadero (Gaviota)
Meliá Peninsula Varadero (Gaviota)
Memories Varadero (Gaviota)
Naviti Varadero (Gaviota)
Ocean Varadero El Patriarca (Gaviota)
Ocean Vista Azul (Gaviota)
Paradisus Princesa del Mar (Gaviota)
Paradisus Varadero (Gaviota)
Sol Sirenas Coral (Gaviota)

Hotels in Pinar del Rio
Hotel Villa Cabo de San Antonio (Gaviota)
Hotel Villa Maria La Gorda y Centro Internacional de Buceo (Gaviota)

Hotels in Baracoa
Hostal 1511 (Gaviota)
Hostal La Habanera (Gaviota)
Hostal La Rusa (Gaviota)
Hostal Rio Miel (Gaviota)
Hotel El Castillo (Gaviota)
Hotel Porto Santo (Gaviota)
Villa Maguana (Gaviota)

Hotels in Cayos de Villa Clara
Angsana Cayo Santa María (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Dhawa Cayo Santa María (Gaviota)
Golden Tulip Aguas Claras (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Hotel Cayo Santa María (Gaviota)
Hotel Playa Cayo Santa María (Gaviota)
Iberostar Ensenachos (Gaviota)
Las Salinas Plana & Spa (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
La Salina Noreste (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
La Salina Suroeste (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Meliá Buenavista (Gaviota)
Meliá Cayo Santa María (Gaviota)
Meliá Las Dunas (Gaviota)
Memories Azul (Gaviota)
Memories Flamenco (Gaviota)
Memories Paraíso (Gaviota)
Ocean Casa del Mar (Gaviota)
Paradisus Los Cayos (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Royalton Cayo Santa María (Gaviota)
Sercotel Experience Cayo Santa María (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Sol Cayo Santa María (Gaviota)
Starfish Cayo Santa María (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Valentín Perla Blanca (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Villa Las Brujas (Gaviota)
Warwick Cayo Santa María (Gaviota) (also Labranda Cayo Santa María Hotel effective November 15, 2018)

Hotels in Holguín
Blau Costa Verde Beach & Resort (Gaviota) (also Fiesta Americana Holguín Costa Verde effective November 15, 2018)
Hotel Playa Costa Verde (Gaviota)
Hotel Playa Pesquero (Gaviota)
Memories Holguín (Gaviota)
Paradisus Río de Oro Resort & Spa (Gaviota)
Playa Costa Verde (Gaviota)
Playa Pesquero Premium Service (Gaviota)
Sol Rio de Luna y Mares (Gaviota)
Villa Cayo Naranjo (Gaviota)
Villa Cayo Saetia (Gaviota)
Villa Pinares de Mayari (Gaviota)

Hotels in Jardines del Rey
Grand Muthu Cayo Guillermo (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Hotel Playa Coco Plus (Gaviota)
Iberostar Playa Pilar (Gaviota)
Meliá Jardines del Rey (Gaviota)
Memories Caribe (Gaviota)
Pestana Cayo Coco (Gaviota)

Hotels in Topes de Collantes
Hostal Los Helechos (Gaviota)
Kurhotel Escambray (Gaviota) Effective November 15, 2018
Los Helechos (Gaviota)
Villa Caburni (Gaviota)

Tourist Agencies
Crucero del Sol
Gaviota Tours

Marinas
Marina Gaviota Cabo de San Antonio (Pinar del Rio)
Marina Gaviota Cayo Coco (Jardines del Rey)
Marina Gaviota Las Brujas (Cayos de Villa Clara)
Marina Gaviota Puerto Vita (Holguín)
Marina Gaviota Varadero (Varadero)

Stores in Old Havana
Casa del Abanico (Habaguanex)
Colección Habana (Habaguanex)
Florería Jardín Wagner (Habaguanex)
Joyería Coral Negro (CIMEX) – Additional locations throughout Cuba
La Casa del Regalo (Habaguanex)
San Ignacio 415 (Habaguanex)
Soldadito de Plomo (Habaguanex)
Tienda El Navegante (Habaguanex)
Tienda Muñecos de Leyenda (Habaguanex)
Tienda Museo El Reloj Cuervo y Sobrinos (Habaguanex)

Entities Directly Serving the Defense and Security Sectors
ACERPROT — Agencia de Certificación y Consultoría de Seguridad y Protección (alias Empresa de Certificación de Sistemas de Seguridad y Protección effective November 15, 2018)
AGROMIN — Grupo Empresarial Agropecuario del Ministerio del Interior
APCI — Agencia de Protección Contra Incendios
CAHOMA — Empresa Militar Industrial Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara
CASEG — Empresa Militar Industrial Transporte Occidente
CID NAV — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Naval
CIDAI — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de Armamento de Infantería
CIDAO — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo del Armamento de Artillería e Instrumentos Ópticos y Ópticos Electrónicos
CORCEL — Empresa Militar Industrial Emilio Barcenas Pier
CUBAGRO — Empresa Comercializadora y Exportadora de Productos Agropecuarios y Agroindustriales
DATYS — Empresa Para El Desarrollo De Aplicaciones, Tecnologías Y Sistemas
DCM TRANS — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo del Transporte
DEGOR — Empresa Militar Industrial Desembarco Del Granma
DSE — Departamento de Seguridad del Estado
EMIAT — Empresa Importadora Exportadora de Abastecimientos Técnicos
Empresa Militar Industrial Astilleros Astimar
Empresa Militar Industrial Astilleros Centro
Empresa Militar Industrial Yuri Gagarin
ETASE — Empresa de Transporte y Aseguramiento
Ferretería TRASVAL
GELCOM — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Grito de Baire
Impresos de Seguridad
MECATRONICS — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de Electrónica y Mecánica
NAZCA — Empresa Militar Industrial Granma
OIBS — Organización Integración para el Bienestar Social
PLAMEC — Empresa Militar Industrial Ignacio Agramonte
PNR — Policía Nacional Revolucionaria
PROVARI — Empresa de Producciones Varias
SEPSA — Servicios Especializados de Protección
SERTOD — Servicios de Telecomunicaciones a los Órganos de la Defensa Effective November 15, 2018
SIMPRO — Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de Simuladores
TECAL — Empresa de Tecnologías Alternativas
TECNOPRO — Empresa Militar Industrial “G.B. Francisco Cruz Bourzac”
TECNOTEX — Empresa Cubana Exportadora e Importadora de Servicios, Artículos y Productos Técnicos Especializados
TGF — Tropas de Guardafronteras
UAM — Unión Agropecuaria Militar
ULAEX — Unión Latinoamericana de Explosivos
XETID — Empresa de Tecnologías de la Información Para La Defensa
YABO — Empresa Militar Industrial Coronel Francisco Aguiar Rodríguez

Additional Subentities of CIMEX
ADESA/ASAT — Agencia Servicios Aduanales (Customs Services)
Cachito (Beverage Manufacturer)
Contex (Fashion)
Datacimex
ECUSE — Empresa Cubana de Servicios
Inmobiliaria CIMEX (Real Estate)
Inversiones CIMEX
Jupiña (Beverage Manufacturer)
La Maisón (Fashion)
Najita (Beverage Manufacturer)
Publicitaria Imagen (Advertising)
Residencial Tarara S.A. (Real Estate / Property Rental) Effective November 15, 2018
Ron Caney (Rum Production)
Ron Varadero (Rum Production)
Telecable (Satellite Television)
Tropicola (Beverage Manufacturer)
Zona Especializada de Logística y Comercio (ZELCOM)

Additional Subentities of GAESA
Almacenes Universales (AUSA)
ANTEX — Corporación Antillana Exportadora
Compañía Inmobiliaria Aurea S.A. (GAESA) Effective November 15, 2018
Dirección Integrada Proyecto Mariel (DIP)
Empresa Inmobiliaria Almest (Real Estate)
GRAFOS (Advertising)
RAFIN S.A. (Financial Services)
Sociedad Mercantin Inmobiliaria Caribe (Real Estate)
TECNOIMPORT
Terminal de Contenedores de la Habana (TCH)
Terminal de Contenedores de Mariel, S.A.
UCM — Unión de Construcciones Militares
Zona Especial de Desarrollo Mariel (ZEDM)
Zona Especial de Desarrollo y Actividades Logísticas (ZEDAL)
Additional Subentities of Gaviota
AT Comercial
Manzana de Gomez (Shopping Mall)
PhotoService
Plaza La Estrella Effective November 15, 2018
Plaza Las Dunas Effective November 15, 2018
Plaza Las Morlas Effective November 15, 2018
Plaza Las Salinas Effective November 15, 2018
Plaza Las Terrazas del Atardecer Effective November 15, 2018
Plaza Los Flamencos Effective November 15, 2018
Plaza Pesquero Effective November 15, 2018
Producciones TRIMAGEN S.A. (Tiendas Trimagen)

Additional Subentities of Habaguanex
Sociedad Mercantil Cubana Inmobiliaria Fenix S.A. (Real Estate)

Miami Herald Ignores Abundant Spy Ties in Coverage of “Cuba Conference” 10

Yesterday’s Herald featured the innocent sounding article, Supporters of Stronger US Relations With Cuba Stage Rare Gathering in Miami. The author, longtime Cuba-watcher Juan Tamayo, wrote “A rare conference of supporters of normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations heard calls Saturday for the Obama administration to allow more travel to the island and remove it from a list of supporters of terrorism.”

The career journalist noted that over 100 people attended the one-day event that offered panelists such as “Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban foreign policy expert at the University of Denver, and Antonio Zamora, a Miami lawyer and member of the Brigade 2506 that invaded Cuba in 1961. He now favors normalizing bilateral relations.”

Conference promoter Hugo Cancio, however, lamented that Washington denied a visa to “invited panelist, retired Havana diplomat Jesus Arboleya, and denied permission to attend the conference to two Cuban diplomats in Washington – First Secretary Juan Lamigueiro and General Counsel Llanio Gonzalez.” Tamayo also spoke with Collin Laverty, a U.S. citizen who works with U.S. visitors to the island, who told him about 90 percent of Americans visiting Cuba are funneled through the Cuban government’s Havanatour agency. (Note: The actual name is Havanatur).

Alarmingly, you could fill volumes with all the intelligence service connections the Herald conveniently omitted. A few of these key facts would include:

• Arturo Lopez-Levy – in his own book – admitted to having been a spy with Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT). Likewise, the Herald failed to note the seven-year PhD candidate’s close family ties to Raul Castro’s son-in-law, MININT Col. Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas.

• The banned panelist, Colonel Jesus Arboleya Cervera was identified by intelligence service defector Jesus Perez Mendez in 1983. Years later, Arboleya’s intelligence service was further corroborated by convicted spy Carlos Alvarez.

Arboleya served as a Second Secretary at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York City before transferring to the Washington-based Cuban Interests Section. During his US tour, Arboleya was the architect of the 1970’s US-Cuba normalization drive, which almost succeeded in 1977 following the formation of a group of prominent Cuban-Americans who called themselves the Committee of 75. Although headed by respectable Cuban-Americans, including two clerics and several businessmen, the Committee was inspired by the DGI, (then) Cuba’s primary foreign intelligence service. According to Senate testimony of March 12, 1982, at the time, Arboleya may have been the longest serving DGI officer in the United States.

• The Havanatur office in Miami surveilled Cuban-Americans seeking to visit the island and recruited agents from among them, according to 1981 Congressional testimony. Subsequently, the US Treasury Department identified Havanatur and CIMEX (among others) as Cuban front companies. In the intelligence arena, a “Front Company” is any entity created, controlled, or heavily influenced by a spy service to fulfill espionage missions without its actions being attributed to the host intelligence service.

In March 2004, the US Treasury identified Havanatur as a CIMEX subsidiary. Public records reveal CIMEX’s involvement in everything from weapons purchases for leftist guerillas in the 1980s to more genteel import/export endeavors.

Havanatur, as well as the remainder of Cuba’s tourism sector, is run as a joint venture by the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and the Ministry of the Armed Forces (MINFAR). For almost 20 years, credible defectors and émigrés have reported that part of the earnings from tourism are channeled back into the operating budgets of these two agencies. As a result, US tourists are actively funding Cuban repression and espionage.

• The entry point for the much heralded “people-to-people” tours is the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). DGI officer Jesus Raul Perez Mendez was the ICAP director before his defection. So well known is ICAP’s collaboration that in 1983, the New York Times cited a State Department spokesman who said ICAP was suspected of having an intelligence collection mission in support of the DGI.

More recently, former DI officer Juan Manuel Reyes-Alonso reportedly that ICAP is not a DI entity per se, but that it was overwhelmingly influenced by the intelligence service. He further claimed ICAP was penetrated by a small cadre of bona fide DI officers, aided by a large staff of agents (i.e., collaborators). As a result, roughly 90% of ICAP was thought to be DI-affiliated.

So the question of the day remains: why is the Miami Herald so adamant about ignoring, suppressing, minimizing or discrediting news on Havana’s spy services?

Editor’s Note: A copy of this post was sent to the Miami Herald as a “Letter to the Editor.”