Cuban military expands its economic empire under detente
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ September 9, 2016 12:14 am
A poster of the Habaguanex company is seen in Old Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. The largest business arm of the City Historian’s Office, Habaguanex, named for a pre-Columbian indigenous chief, directly runs some 20 hotels and 30 stores and more than 25 restaurants in...
HAVANA (AP) — At the height of Cuba’s post-Soviet economic crisis, a man with the obscure title of city historian began transforming Havana’s crumbling historic center block by block, polishing stone facades, replacing broken stained glass and repairing potholed streets.
Over a quarter century, Eusebio Leal turned Old Havana into a painstakingly restored colonial jewel, a tourist draw that brings in more than $170 million a year, according to the most recent available figures. His office became a center of power with unprecedented budgetary freedom from the island’s communist central government.
That independence is gone. Last month, the Cuban military took over the business operations of Leal’s City Historian’s Office, absorbing them into a business empire that has grown dramatically since the declaration of detente between the U.S. and Cuba on Dec. 17, 2014.
http://wtop.com/latin-america/2016/09/cuban-military-expands-its-economic-empire-under-detente/
