Inside GAESA: How Cuba’s Military Conglomerate Projects Influence Beyond the Island

Inside GAESA: How Cuba’s Military Conglomerate Projects Influence Beyond the Island

More than a business conglomerate, the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA) has become the primary vehicle through which Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) control much of the country’s strategic economy. Ports, logistics, tourism, financial services, foreign trade, and other hard-currency-generating sectors form part of a corporate structure unlike any other in Latin America and the Caribbean. For analysts, GAESA’s significance…

China Refuses to Sign Agreement to Combat Illegal Fishing

China Refuses to Sign Agreement to Combat Illegal Fishing

This article was originally published by U.S. Africa Command magazine, Africa Defense Forum (ADF), on July 28, 2026. China has refused to sign an agreement meant to improve efforts to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Beijing commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet and is the world’s worst illegal fishing offender, according to the IUU Fishing Risk Index.…

Chinese Money Laundering Networks Fuel Financial Expansion of Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean

Chinese Money Laundering Networks Fuel Financial Expansion of Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean

Chinese money laundering networks have become a key financial engine for transnational organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through informal value transfer systems, underground banking, international trade, and cryptocurrencies, these organizations move billions of dollars in illicit funds. “Chinese organized crime has expanded worldwide and has turned Latin America into one of its principal financial operating hubs,” Leland…

Beyond Health Care: The Strategic Role of Cuba’s Overseas Medical Missions

Beyond Health Care: The Strategic Role of Cuba’s Overseas Medical Missions

As Cuba’s health care system faces one of the worst crises in its history, marked by increasingly frequent blackouts, chronic medicine shortages, and hospitals in poor condition, its international medical missions continue to represent one of Havana’s main sources of revenue, in some cases surpassing even tourism. Each year, they generate billions of dollars, providing the regime with essential resources…

China Expands Its Grip on Latin America’s Strategic Minerals Vital to Defense and Technology

China Expands Its Grip on Latin America’s Strategic Minerals Vital to Defense and Technology

China has steadily expanded its presence in Latin America’s critical minerals sector, investing in lithium, copper, and other resources that underpin advanced technologies, defense systems, semiconductors, and the global energy transition. Accompanied by investments in ports, transportation corridors, and processing facilities, Beijing’s growing footprint in the region has fueled concerns over economic security, strategic dependence, and countries’ ability to retain…

Soft Power and Strategic Ports: China’s Expanding Media Presence in Panama

Soft Power and Strategic Ports: China’s Expanding Media Presence in Panama

In recent years, China has paired its economic expansion with growing media and digital influence efforts, using strategic communications to strengthen its presence in key sectors such as ports, telecommunications, energy, and logistics. Through state media, embassies, social media platforms, and local partners, Beijing promotes narratives that portray China as a reliable partner and a driver of development. These campaigns…

China’s Solar Energy Projects Deepen Cuba’s Technological Dependence

China’s Solar Energy Projects Deepen Cuba’s Technological Dependence

As blackouts continue to cripple Cuba and fuel growing public discontent, China is leveraging the island’s worst energy crisis in decades to deepen its dependence on Chinese-made solar technology. By supplying photovoltaic panels, inverters, specialized equipment, and technical assistance, Beijing is establishing an increasingly important position in a sector critical to restoring Cuba’s electrical system while expanding its strategic influence…

China Deepens Strategic Position in Ecuador’s Gold and Copper Sector

China Deepens Strategic Position in Ecuador’s Gold and Copper Sector

China is rapidly expanding its presence across Ecuador’s strategic mineral sector, securing access to major gold and copper deposits that are increasingly critical to global industrial supply chains, advanced manufacturing, and the energy transition. The latest step came in April 2026, when Ecuador signed an agreement worth more than $1.7 billion for the development of the Los Cangrejos deposit in…

Brazil’s Critical Minerals Push and the Race for Strategic Autonomy

Brazil’s Critical Minerals Push and the Race for Strategic Autonomy

As concerns grow over China’s dominance of global rare earth and strategic mineral supply chains, Brazil is emerging as one of the world’s leading alternatives. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the country holds approximately 11 million metric tons of rare earth reserves, the second largest in the world after China, in addition to significant deposits of other critical…

Solar Power and Strategic Influence: China’s Expanding Footprint in the Caribbean

Solar Power and Strategic Influence: China’s Expanding Footprint in the Caribbean

As Caribbean countries accelerate their energy transition, China is steadily expanding its presence in the region’s renewable energy sector, particularly in solar power. Between 2020 and 2024, Chinese exports of green technologies to the Caribbean grew by more than 570 percent. At the same time, this expansion has raised concerns about project transparency, growing technological dependence, and the possibility that…

China Strengthens Its Influence in Cuba’s Strategic Nickel Sector

China Strengthens Its Influence in Cuba’s Strategic Nickel Sector

As Canadian company Sherritt International’s participation in Cuba’s nickel sector faces a period of uncertainty after initially announcing plans to withdraw from one of its joint ventures with the Havana regime, China is steadily expanding its technological support for the island’s mining industry. The introduction of Chinese-supplied equipment to modernize aging facilities is helping keep one of the Cuban regime’s…

China’s Strategic Infrastructure in Cuba: Surveillance, Intelligence, and Regional Power

China’s Strategic Infrastructure in Cuba: Surveillance, Intelligence, and Regional Power

Since May, Cuba has seen several protests over the country’s deepening energy crisis and the rolling blackouts that continue to disrupt daily life. Independent journalists have also reported repeated internet outages, even after electricity service has been restored. “The regime cuts communications,” journalist Mag Jorge Castro wrote on X, describing a “massive internet outage in Havana.” These incidents point to…