Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel and previous President Raul Castro wave nationwide flags as 1000’s march to Revolution Sq. to mark May possibly Working day, in Havana, Cuba Might 1, 2022. REUTERS/Claudia Daut/File Picture

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HAVANA, July 1 (Reuters) – Common Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja, a single of Cuba’s most strong adult men, died on Friday of a heart assault, condition media reported, leaving a crucial gap in the political and financial leadership of the communist-operate island.

Lopez-Calleja, 62, was a important member of Cuba’s political bureau, the ruling Communist Party’s best decision-producing human body. He was at the time married to former Cuban leader Raul Castro´s daughter Deborah.

A short write-up in bash newspaper Granma lamented Lopez-Calleja’s passing and hailed his “outstanding history of solutions to the Homeland and the Cuban Revolution”.

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Lopez-Calleja stored a pretty minimal profile, hardly ever showing in images or on television, but his affect, in particular about the economic climate, experienced increased markedly because President Miguel Diaz-Canel succeeded Castro in 2018.

A shut confidant of Castro, Lopez-Calleja was also head of GAESA, a conglomerate of navy-owned organizations that take care of considerably of Cuba’s overall economy, from luxurious resorts for travelers to the supermarkets that provide items to Cubans in overseas currencies.

The loss of life of the common, who was also an advisor to Diaz-Canel, is not very likely to reduce GAESA’s value but is a setback for its leadership, in accordance to William LeoGrande, a professor of govt at American College in Washington.

“Lopez-Calleja performed a central role in the results of the overseas-trade-earnings companies below the umbrella of the GAESA conglomerate,” LeoGrande claimed.

“Whoever succeeds him, both of those at GAESA and in the political bureau, will promptly develop into just one of Cuba’s most influential leaders, specially on economic plan,” LeoGrande reported.

In 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump set Lopez-Calleja on a U.S. blacklist that prohibited U.S. men and women or providers from dealing with him.

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Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Marc Frank Enhancing by Angus MacSwan and Daniel Wallis

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