Madrid/Frank Cuspinera Medina, owner of Diplomarket, the so-called “Cuban Costco”, and his wife, Camila, are missing after supposedly being detained on June 20. The information was disseminated on Saturday by the Facebook page La Tijera, initially echoing that a State Security operation and “two buses” with auditors from Gaesa (SA Business Administration Group), the conglomerate, arrived at the supermarket. of the Armed Forces.
On Friday, in the WhatsApp group managed by Diplomarket, a message announced that they were “closed until further notice,” explaining: “We are having problems operating due to the commercial license that must be renewed.” Likewise, the app The store, which can still be visited, displays the legend: “We are offline – Send us an email.”
“It seems that El Cangrejo, grandson of the dictator Raúl Castro, no longer needs his Miami front man Frank Cuspinera Medina,” he speculated. post from La Tijera, referring to Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, son of the late Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja and Déborah Castro Espín and his grandfather’s bodyguard. The brief text also recalled that Cuspinera Medina was vice president of Las Américas TCC Corporation, based in Pompano Beach (Florida), and that for years he had resided in El Vedado, where he had bought “a mansion thanks to his relationship with the dictatorial leadership.” ”.
Both Cuspinera and his wife have been “incommunicado” since that day, accused of “tax evasion, currency trafficking and money laundering.”
The next day, La Tijera disclosed more details of the case based on an email received. According to this anonymous source, last Thursday the “Cuban military forces” intervened in the Cuban-American’s business, and both he and his wife have been “incommunicado” since that day, accused of “tax evasion, currency trafficking and money laundering.” ”. These accusations, the email denounced, “are nothing more than a pretext for the regime to appropriate their assets.”
“The authorities waited for the close of the day to break into his company and take everything, a sale that they themselves had previously authorized,” continued the text, which stated that the day after those events, “they began to confiscate all of his assets.” company to distribute them among the members of the Castro leadership.”
La Tijera’s source frames the operation within a “repetitive pattern” in which “the Castro regime attacks those who try to create opportunities and prosperity outside of state control.” However, this was not the case for Cuspinera, well established on both shores of the Florida Strait for years and whose Diplomarket is located on land owned by Gaesa, at kilometer 8 1⁄2 of the Monumental Highway, in the Berroa neighborhood. , more than 10 kilometers east of the center of Havana.
Las Américas TCC, among other activities, was in charge of supplying the “Cuban Costco”, inaugurated at the end of 2022. The supermarket, which before physically opening was already operating for purchases on-linebegan to operate discreetly until a tweet from CNN correspondent Patrick Oppmann, who did not mention his name, put the spotlight on it almost a year later.
On that occasion, 14ymedio He visited the business, and was able to see the strong surveillance to which it was subjected. In a first booth, they took the vehicle data next to the entry time, and further on there was another booth with a guard, before entering the store. At the door, two individuals looked at everyone who entered from top to bottom, and a large screen showed the movement of the security cameras, placed everywhere. A regular customer called it a “military unit.”
Who was its owner, then, was not easy to find out, since the firm was not on the list of ‘MSMEs’.
Who was its owner, then, was not easy to find out, since the firm was not on the list of micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs) approved by the Ministry of Economy and Planning and Cuspinera’s name did not appear on the Diplomarket website.
On the other hand, he did appear as vice president of Las Américas TCC. Consulting specialized pages, this newspaper verified that he had resided in the United States and that he currently resided in El Vedado, Havana. In 2021 he had appeared as a “specialist in a meeting between self-employed workers and the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba.
That same year, his name also appeared in a letter that several Cuban entrepreneurs sent to the US president, Joe Biden, to ask him to lift the sanctions against the Government of the Island, which were harming their businesses. In the letter he did not appear as a member of Las Américas TCC but rather as a member of Iderod Servicios Constructivos.
This last firm was also not on the list of MSMEs of the regime, but a company with his name, Cuspinera SURL LVI, dedicated to “providing electronic commerce platform services.” Just like a branch of Las Américas TCC.
A nervous interlocutor, who did not give his name but said he was a former manager of Diplomarket, explained that the number “is no longer Frank’s.”
This Monday, 14ymedio He tried without success to contact all the commercial numbers of those firms. Those from Las Américas TCC, in Miami, appear disconnected, and the same from Diplomarket. When calling Iderod Servicios Constructivos, a nervous interlocutor, who did not give his name but said he was a former manager of Diplomarket, explained that the number “is no longer Frank’s” and that Frank “had not canceled call forwarding.” He gave no news of Cuspinera.
The situation, if confirmed, is reminiscent of that of the former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernández, arrested last March, weeks after being dismissed for “errors committed in the exercise of his position”, and about whom nothing has been known since then. His sister, María Victoria Gil, said in an interview with 14ymedio that the former high official, who had been Díaz-Canel’s right-hand man, and his wife, Gina María González, were “incommunicado.”
“In Cuba there are some special houses, which belong to State Security, very good houses, in Miramar and Nuevo Vedado, where they take high-level, high-ranking people, in quotes, who are being investigated. This was the case of Carlos Lage and many others. They have all the luxuries and all the comforts, nor are they treated badly, far from it. It must be in one of those houses, I don’t know in which direction,” the former national television presenter said then.
