Is Russian Mob Financing Castro Regime?

at 11:19 AM Monday, January 31, 2011
Over the weekend, Telecom Italia completed the re-sale of its 27% stake in the Castro regime's telecom monopoly, ETECSA, to the Cuban military.

As we'd posted last month, Telecom Italia apparently got tired of censoring the Cuban people. (It's worth noting that its CEO announced the company would now be pursuing business in Brazil and Argentina, where it can "control" its own investments.)

The $706 million re-purchase was completed by Rafin, S.A., the financial arm of the Cuban military's conglomerate, GAESA.

GAESA, which is run by General Raul Castro's son-in-law, Col. Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez Callejas, is the holding company of Castro's military, which controls virtually all hard currency operations in Cuba.

As if that wasn't concerning enough -- in May 2010, Rafin, S.A., created a joint venture with South Pacific Holdings, Ltd., which is believed to be controlled by unknown Russian finance players.

Something seems terribly iffy here.