In the heart of Luanda, a few blocks from the iconic Currency Museum and the San Miguel Fortress, rises up, pretentiously, Meditex Clinic — a private health center owned by the Cuban military in Angola that promotes «100 % Cuban» medical care while «raising millions for the regime», says Dr. Emilio Arteaga, collaborator in the African country between 2013 and 2015.

«While they preach about solidarity, they own a private clinic in Luanda that charges a lot to treat rich people. The poor can't go there», argues Cuban neurosurgeon Armando Alemán, who worked for the Cuban mission in the María Pía public hospital in Angola's capital from 2007 to 2011.

Emilio Arteaga (r) in Angola, 2014. Courtesy of the interviewee.

This business, as well as others equally managed by the Gaesa military conglomerate through the Antillean Exporter Corporation Plc, (Antex), becomes the Capitalist symbol of socialist Cuba, by profiting from professional services in key sectors of the Ango lan economy. The lucrative income of some US 6.755 billion dollars in the last quarter of the century comes from providing Angola’s national security, as well as healthcare and blood products made-in-Cuba. «Antex is a spider web that, once in it, entangles you, suffocates you, and won't let you escape», explains a former Cuban official who wishes to remain anonymous.

Meditex: the end of the myth of free healthcare

Opened in 1993 at the height of Cuba’s worst crisis since the triumph of the 1959 Revolution, Meditex Medical and Pharmaceutical Services Plc took advantage of the privatization processes in Angola. This makes it the oldest of the military-owned companies created after Antex took control of Cuba's businesses in the African country in 1989 [1].

Despite boasting of more than 30 specialties, 12 000 surgeries performed, and «the latest technologies» (to the detriment of Cuba’s Public Health system), Sergio, a former worker of the health center in 2023 declares that Meditex's prices are «excessively high» while lacking «infrastructure and auxiliary diagnostic means, and state-of-the-art equipment technology» in comparison with other health clinics.

«Meditex is a poorly furbished clinic. Elevators are not designed to transport trolleys; therefore, patients must be carried on shoulders upstairs. In other words, it may be comparable to [other] clinics in terms of prices, but otherwise, it is like a Cuban polyclinic in terms of infrastructure», he adds. The obsolescence of the facilities, he confirms, has contributed to the demise of the once prestigious Cuban healthcare in Angola.

Sergio's perception is that the Cuban authorities «do not want to invest in anything» and «blame doctors for not having patients». The medical personnel are sent to «institutions to 'recruit patients'» and to promote the clinic's services. Notwithstanding, Antex does spend money in its security system. The workers are closely monitored by the clinic's surveillance cameras, by agents of the Political Police, and by Antex bosses, whose offices adjoin the clinic, explains Sergio. To exercise almost absolute control — he specifies — workers are housed on the upper floors of Meditex for the duration of their contract.

Among the personnel who work at Meditex there are «high-level Cuban consultants» tightly «controlled by State Security, more than the rest of the collaborators» and many of them are «military doctors and [staff] of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint)», explains Dr. Arteaga. The selection criteria is based on «political reliability of support for the regime. Almost 100 % were members of the Communist Party», he says, which adds to the thorough vetting process conducted by Antex during recruitment.

Although the Health institution does not publicly declare its income nor the price it charges for its services, information in the press and social media suggests that a consultation can cost 90 000 kwanzas (107 USD); while a smear test to detect cervical cancer, at least in 2021, was 58 878 kwanzas (70 USD), at full price.

In 2019, Jornal de Angola revealed that Meditex charged for natural birth procedures up to 500 000 kwanzas (1 370 USD at the time) overall, while a cesarean section cost 700 000 kwanzas (1 918 USD). The type of hospital room and additional medical care contribute to an increase in the price, between 800 000 and 950 000 kwanzas (2 192 and 2 603 USD).

Meditex's shareholders are the Cuban companies linked to Antex and from 2013 to 2015 alone (the only period available in public records), its share capital increased tenfold.

The company also profits from the commercialization of Cuban products, including cosmetics, sold in pharmacies owned by the military. It has also opened branches such as the Meditex-Alvalade Dental Clinic, as well as an Ophthalmological Center opened in 2011, both in central streets of the capital (Rua Ramalho and Amilcar Cabral). According to Sergio, Meditex does not have its own ophthalmologist. «A Consultant from another center must be brought in to provide patient care services and procedures».

Meditex pharmacy. Photo: Facebook.

In addition to owning a clinic, the military places Cuban health workers in other private health centers in the capital. The few and scattered available documents issued by Antex show a total 39 of workers in clinics such as Caridad Nova Vida, Girasol and Multiperfil, in 2020 alone. Likewise, at least one female doctor was employed in Rosymed Clinic in previous years. The total number of Cubans hired by Antex in private clinics in Angola at present is unknown, although Sergio estimates that around 40 Cuban collaborators are currently working at Meditex alone.

Commercial interests and other companies

Supported by the export of professional services with 85 % in Healthcare and Education, Cuba's presence in Angola also stretches out to the industrial sector, as well as to the areas of business and administration. Cuban professionals hired by Antex can be seen as Ministerial advisers, directors of faculties in universities and leading teaching programs; in the creation of work and study projects, as well as in the training of the Angolan professional force. By way of intermediation alone, the military company retains up to 91 % of what Angola pays for the provision of services.

To control and expand their business, the military presence uses products and services of about twenty Cuban companies. Of them, at least eight are public limited companies of the Gaesa network listed in the General Tax Administration’s registry of Angola. Headquartered in exclusive neighborhoods of the capital (Ingombotas and Alvalade), the joint stock companies are interconnected with each other through their partners and shareholders. They are all managed by Antex Corporation, which is blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) due to Washington's trade sanctions on the Havana regime.

According to the records of the Ministry of Finance as well as the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Angola, Antex commercial ventures were registered between 1993 and 2009 and became public limited companies, which broadens their scope and allows the opening of branches or subsidiaries both in the national territory and abroad. In addition to Meditex, there are two Antex-named companies for projects, representation, and recruitment, and five Imbondex-named companies that operate in the Construction and Business Management sectors, among many others.

Imbondex is an acronym that refers to the national tree of Angola, the Imbondeiro, a giant species also known as baobab that has the additional quality of being a cultural symbol of strength and unity, as well as a plague that threatens to destroy an entire planet if not pruned in time, as per The Little Prince, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry bestseller.

Indeed, with a wide range of commercial activities within the areas of services, healthcare, tourism, construction, real estate, transportation, mining, fishing, electronics, and computing, Imbondex companies have reached gigantic proportions. Its presence in the African country dates back to at least the 1990s and connects Angola with Liechtenstein, a small European tax haven where the regime headquarters its low-profile commercial operations aimed to evade the US embargo, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald / El Nuevo Herald and McClatchy.

Screenshot of registration of Imbodex Corp. Establishment. Source: Open Corporates

Imbondex Corporation Establishment, registered in Liechtenstein in 1990, established a construction materials company in Angola in 1994. It also appears as a partner in Imbondex General Trade and Provision of Services, created in 2001. Such assets, including others like Antex Projects, Inspection and Consulting, as well as Imbondex Constructions and Construction Materials, Imbondex Touristic, and Imbondex Maritime [2], are mentioned in a notarized document related to the registration upgrade of a public limited company in 2016. Jorge Acosta Carballo, a senior Cuban official who, as of 2021 held the position of vice president of Antex, is designated as the companies' re presentative in the legal document and thus acts as figurehead of the regime.

Promotional image of Antex Projects, S.A. Source: Facebook

Through these companies, the Government of Cuba:

● Leads the business of mass recruitment in Health and Education.

● Extends its economic influence beyond the export of professional services.

● Guarantees the business of at least another dozen Cuban state companies in Angola.

● Evades Washington's trade sanctions on Havana.

«It stunned me how they took so much money out of Angola through the provision of medical services that, according to the regime, was solidarity, but it is actually a business», says Dr. Arteaga.

A 2019 report from the Angolan General State Account shows a 104.1 million-dollar payment made from the African country to the International Financial Bank of Cuba (BFI, owned by Gaesa) which was its highest transfer to a foreign bank that year. In similar reports, during the 2013-2017 five-year period, Antex is among the top 14 recipients of payments from Angola that reached 1.21 billion dollars.

Outside this period, it has not been possible to access the financial breakdown between Cuba and Angola, except through contracts published in the country's Official Gazette and other reports in the Angolan media.

None of Antex companies are accountable for their financial activities, despite being publicly funded. Their management also ignored the 28 requests for information and interviews within the framework of this investigation and so did Cuban government agencies. The lack of transparency makes it difficult for the true scope of commercial activity between both countries to be measured and classified.

However, Adonis Norberto De los Santos Siveright, Antex former Director of Business and Development, boasts of managing «contract portfolios valued at more than 200 million dollars annually» during his almost 20 years of intermediation for the company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In addition to Liechtenstein, Cuban companies in Angola have connections with Russia and Panama. An investigation by elTOQUE and CONNECTAS on Gaesa cited data from Import Genius that shows Russian supplier Intercom and Ivert sold construction materials to Imbondex through Antex Angola. The companies also shipped the merchandise to Panama and Luanda.

«Investments in the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone, namely in an ice cream and yogurt factory that sells the Cuban brand Coppelia», add up to the Cuban presence in Angola. Priority Industries, the commercial name of the factory, employed 11 Cuban workers in 2020, according to Antex records.

The review of 30 issues of the Official Gazette of the Republic of Angola — which include notary documents and commercial agreements, as well as consultations of commercial records of the African country and the Luanda Leaks database, as well as press releases and documents of Antex allowed us to verify that the commercial network of the Cuban military in Angola covers nearly 30 economic sectors and areas. These include defense, energy, the oil industry, internal order, and hydraulic resources. At least unti l August 2023 — the most recent official figure available — 10.3 % of the total Cubans hired by Antex worked in the business area.

Cuba also runs a travel agency called Atlántico Azul (Blue Atlantic), in operation since 2006 in the African country as part of Imbondex Touristic, Plc. The agency promotes destinations on the Caribbean Island and Health Tourism. Through an alliance with the Cuban Medical Services Company Servimed, Atlántico Azul's activity has been extended to medical schools and includes the management with the Cuban Embassy for visas to the island, the direct flight from Luanda to Havana «with the Angolan airline TAAG and [the] transportation from the José Martí airport, in Havana, to a hotel, with one night guaranteed», according to Jornal de Angola in 2011.

The travel agency also provides services to Cuban collaborators, according to a complaint from doctors in Angola to whom the company charged 1 800 USD per plane ticket from Luanda to Havana. Business has been strengthened since 2022 due to the signing of memorandums of understanding in the areas of tourism and investments.

Travel Agency “Blue Atlantic”. Facebook

Construction, oil and gold

In construction, the Cuban military has found a lucrative business to swell its coffers. Data compiled by the independent site MAKA, which monitors the Government’s administration of resources in Angola, indicate the signing of million-dollar agreements, including two in 2004 for a comprehensive sanitation project for Luanda worth 4.7 million dollars. Of the total, the local government allocated 1.2 million dollars to Antex for the «provision of technical assistance services» and 3.5 million dollars to Imbondex «for the purchase of biological and chemical products».

Among the irregularities observed by MAKA, the most alarming is that the Military House of the President of the Republic of Angola (who hired the Cuban companies) did not pay for the work. Instead, it named the provincial government of Luanda responsible for financing, in clear violation of established payment and execution mechanisms. The payment was made by «bank transfer outside the country, in favor of Antex» — authorized by José Eduardo Do Santos, Angolan president from 1979 to 2017 and faithful ally of the Cuban regime until his death.

In 2014, Cuba and Angola signed a memorandum of understanding that tasked Antex, through the company Imbondex, with a highway infrastructure rehabilitation program. By that year, the intervention of Cuban construction companies in Angola was visible in the provinces of Bengo, Cuando Cubango, Bié, Huíla, among others, and the Government had authorized an extra 500 million dollars for the execution of public works.

The three-year agreement, signed by Dos Santos during an official visit to Havana in June 2014 included the construction and modernization of six airports, for which Cuban professionals were also hired. For the rehabilitation of the Monogue and Ndalatado airfields alone, Imbondex Constructions secured two contracts for more than 66.2 million dollars, according to accounts of the Angolan State in 2013 (the year in which Antex secured nearly 140 million dollars more in agreed business).

The contracts in question — the official document states — were signed «in violation» of the Angolan legislation in force at the time on the use of the State budget, which prohibited foreign currency payments associated with variable or fluctuating expenses. This means that, by agreeing to pay in dollars, a deval uation of the kwanza would force the African Government to allocate extra funds to fulfill its part of the deal, as has happened in other business with Antex.

Due to its construction works in the Bengo province, Imbondex was involved in complaints of occupation and expropriation of land by residents of the Burgalheira neighborhood, in the Panguila commune, Dande municipality, one of the localities «invaded by he avily armed officials» that «safeguarded» the excavators, as reported by Jornal Angolense on June 21, 2014.

In the construction of the main Catumbela airport, in Benguela, Imbondex was part of a consortium of companies led by the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, involved in corruption and money laundering scandals. Still, the company continued to operate smoothly in Angola, a country that ranked 121st among the 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index, which places it among the third least honest public sectors. The work — 50 % financed by the Brazilian Development Bank and inaugurated in 2012 by President Dos Santos — cost 250 million dollars and in 2023 it still did not have certification for international flights. So far, it only operates domestic flights, according to Google Maps reviews.

From 2017 to 2019, Imbondex Constructions secured contracts worth at least the equivalent of 315.5 million dollars in projects, as per the official exchange rate at that time. Of them, 301 million dollars were for the construction of 283 km of road and 75 meters of bridges in Bengo, a contract that Cuba lost in 2020 due to non-compliance — although the figure changed, according to calculations by Africa Intelligence. What in 2017 was equivalent to 301 million, in 2020 had been reduced to 77 million dollars as a consequence of the devaluation of the kwanza by 75 % from the signing of the contract to its cancellation. It is not clear whether Imbondex received part of the budgeted payment.

The remaining 14.3 million was for water infrastructure repair and rehabilitation works agreed upon at the end of 2019 in the southern communities of Xangongo, Ondjiva and other neighboring villages in the Cunene province. The construction project of the water distribution network (which began on Ondjiva from 2009 to 2013) had been commissioned to the Cuban company for a value of 97 million dollars, and by 2019 it had major leaks. From that year until 2021, the losses exceeded 4.8 million cubic meters of water. The volume — equivalent to 3 000 Olympic swimming pools — represented 33 % of the total water produced in the three-year period, according to official documents and accounts reports from the Cunene Water and Sanitation Company. In July 2023, another significant breakdown left Ondjiva, Santa-Clara, Humbe and more adjacent towns without water supply.

Agrotourism project executed by Imbondex Construcciones in Kilamba.

From 2009 to 2018, the company Cuba Petroleum (Cupet) obtained a 5 % participating interest in a commercial partnership with the Angolan companies Sonangol and Force Petroleum, in Cabinda, a small province with significant oil reserves. Prospecting had begun in 2007 under the tutelage of the Australian ROC Oil, although it was later absorbed by Pluspetrol Angola, a subsidiary of the Argentine group Pluspetrol, which began production in 2013, according to a report from the Angolan Ministry of Finance. The records consulted do not show how much the percentage represents in dollars. 

In 2020, Cuba returned to the exploration zone as part of VenAngoCupet , Plc . (a mixed Cuban-Venezuelan-Angolan company). The oil company obtained a 20 % stake in Cabinda from 2020 to 2022, according to Sonangol accounts. The reports do not detail the company profits in dollars; however, judging by the agreement to establish the joint venture, the Cuban side is responsible for one-fifth of the income.

Parallel to the above, the trio had been operating since 2010 in the Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui, while Sonangol signed agreements with the Cuban oil company in 2015 for drilling in deep waters off Cuba's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, a s part of the production sharing contracts with the Venezuelan state company PDVSA. However, according to Jorge Piñón, director of the Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Texas, the agreements did not yield the expected results.

A project that did start with a good prognosis was the drilling of the Alameda-2 well in Block 9 of Matanzas (western Cuba) in 2021, by the Australian company Melbana Energy. With production volumes of up to 1 100 barrels of oil per day, the following year it reached 16.1 million dollars in assets, according to Sonangol accounts and media reports. It was the Angolan oil company that covered 85 % of the project investment worth 3.7 million dollars, which «seems to be a payment of its political debt with Cuba» , reasons Piñón — who does not rule out the exchange of «oil for medical/pharmaceutical services... as Algeria and Venezuela have done».

Investments of such significance on the island have occurred while Cuba is one of Angola's main debtors. At least in 2020, the Caribbean nation topped the list of 12 countries that owed money to the Angolan government, 11 of which were African. The sum that year amounted to 200.4 million dollars on the Cuban side, according to the Angolan economist and professor Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, who when asked about the inspection of the most recent Cuban debts and income responded:

«There is no information on Cuba's debt with Angola, except for what I published, and which appears in the General State Account. The relations between Angola and Cuba are not very transparent, little or nothing is known». Figures from the Angolan Government confirm that in 2021 and 2022, the island has remained among the main debtors with the same amount, 200 million dollars.

It has not been possible either to access updated data on the participation of military companies in mining exploitation in Angola, except for the mention of a bilateral cooperation agreement signed in 2009 that was ratified in 2015. Two years later, at le ast one Cuban collaborator was working in the Precious Metals Society of Angola (Somepa), as per Antex payrolls.

According to notary documents, Antex was authorized by the Ministry of Geology and Mines of Angola for the exploitation and commercialization of precious metals, in a public-private partnership with four other companies. The Cuban side received 20 % of the «mining license rights for prospecting, research and localization of gold deposits in the M'Popo region», in Huila. The value of such a fraction in hard currency remains unknown.

However, media coverage of state visits, as well as political and military exchanges between the two countries, made it possible to verify the validity of the «economic and commercial ties with many deposits to be exploited» and the intention to «continue developing them», according to statements made in 2023 by Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz. The most recent agreement in the area was signed in March 2024.

From 2004 to 2020, Cuban companies benefited from agreements valued at around 6 527 million USD, according to Angola’s state accounts reports and notarial documents. The figure is just an indicator of the multimillion-dollar profits made by the regime’s ow ned businesses in Angola.

The review of presidential decrees reveals that simplified contracting procedures (direct acquisition and without public tender) have benefited Antex's businesses, specifically in the provision of professional services, in water works and assistance within the energy sector. Although it is a legal procedure, local analysts Rosado de Carvalho and Ribeiro Tenguna agree that its use should be an exception and not a rule because it can open legal loopholes for corruption and favoritism. 

Cubans in the defense and National Security of Angola

Under similar opacity, Cuba and Angola have signed cooperation agreements in areas such as defense, and legal assistance, the content of which is unknown. It has only been possible to access notary documents about the signing and ratification of contracts, and to verify the allocation of additional credit for nearly 30 million dollars in 2017 «to the company Antex, Plc. for the provision of services in the Budgeted Units of the Ministry of Defense».

A striking fact is the placement by Antex of four Cuban members of the Communist Party (PCC) in the Security House (today Military House) of the current president of Angola Joao Laurencio, with salaries between 450 and 550 USD monthly, according to Antex payrolls issued during his first presidential term. Another source from the corporation confirmed that, at least until 2020, there were Cuban personnel in charge of the president's security, which amounts to a total of nine.

According to the website of the Government of Angola, the Military House is an auxiliary body of the Angolan presidency that provides «direct and immediate assistance, advice and technical support to the president in the fulfillment of his duties, especially in matters of security».

Although it might have been common during the war, the presence of «trustworthy» Cubans in the protection ring of an Angolan head of state is not public knowledge. Currently, the only officially reported information relates to the signing of security agree ments, however, this is far from an unprecedented occurrence. In 2020, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, claimed on X ( previously Twitter) that Cuba had agents in similar functions in Venezuela.

«Cuban security personnel protect puppet dictator Maduro so that the Castros and their accomplices can continue sucking resources from Venezuela», Nichols said.

Four other Cubans were also found in the ranks of the Angolan Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE, in Portuguese), which would be the equivalent of US Homeland Security. Of them, three are PCC militants with monthly salaries of between 550 and 600 USD, while the fourth officer's details, other than his name, are not revealed.

Last October, the leader of the opposition party National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), Adalberto Costa Júnior, denounced that the intelligence services repress «all those identified as opponents of the current regime».

His statements to Deutsche Welle were about the creation of a new «task force» that feeds «fake news that circulates in the public space, damaging both institutional and personal relationships, once again sowing hatred among Angolans», he stressed.

Actions of digital repression are overseen by the intelligence services, which reflects the media control exercised by totalitarian regimes such as Cuba. They include misinformation using «cyber mercenaries», and the hacking of independent media such as MAKA. According to a study on digital media and censorship in the African nation, the Government of Angola has developed a «sophisticated signals intelligence program» that is supported by China «to monitor information/communications, including mobile phones and the Internet», with special emphasis on digital surveillance of dissidents and their contact networks.

Other sources, such as Antex Payroll as well as references on social media, show that Cuban teachers are also actively involved in the education of Angolan law enforcement officers at the Higher Institute of Political and Criminal Sciences based in Luanda.

Since Cuba's active involvement in the Angolan civil war, Havana and Moscow «continue to be the main partners for the training of Angolan soldiers inside and outside the country», says the official website of the African nation's Armed Forces.

In addition to the 13 hired in the security of the president and the State, it has been possible to account for 214 Cubans employed in SIMPORTEX, a public company of the Angolan Ministry of Defense (dedicated to the commercialization of equipment and material resources for import and export), as well as in the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). Of them, at least one provided military training on weapons and ammunition at the Lobito Army Military Academy, in Benguela, according to information gathered from 442 flight schedules, issued by Antex. 

Added to the above are 45 Cubans hired in the Ministry of the Interior of the African country (44 as professors and one as a forensic doctor), for a total of 276 hired within the machinery of the Angolan Government. The total includes four Cuban advisors placed in the Secretary of State for Water, in the Ministry of Education, and in the Ministry of Health.

The data (which should be understood as a sub-record) relates to previous years, although within the mandate of the current president. This information is not public, however, it is known and managed by Antex officials. It is uncertain whether Cuba still has personnel in the aforementioned positions, notwithstanding, a publication from the Cuban Embassy in Angola dated April 5, 2024, highlights the good state of cooperation in matters of national security and its possible expansion.

Bilateral relations in the area are based on a Security and Public Order Agreement signed in Havana on July 2, 2003, by both Ministers of the Interior and cover the National Police, Immigration and Immigration, Penitentiary, and Civil Protection, the Fire Department, as well as the Criminal Investigation Service. The latter pursues cases of corruption and economic crimes and has prosecuted and seized assets of political or potential rivals, even from his own political party. Among them, stands out the former vice president of the Republic, Manuel Vicente, and the former directors of Sonangol, Isabel Dos Santos (daughter of the late Angolan president), and of the AAA insurance company, Carlos San Vicente, son-in-law of the late former president Agostinho Neto (1975-1979). 

«In Angola, Cuban soldiers were working alongside Angolan soldiers, not only in schools... Just as the MPLA is not interested in losing power, Cuba also cares for its main ally in Angola not to lose power», said Elier Plana, a Cuban engineer who worked in Angola between 2014 and 2018. The left-wing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola has governed since 1975.

Cuba exports medicines, blood products and technology to Angola

Another source of revenue for Cuba is its exports to the African country. Notably, the most sought-after products in Angola are scarce on the island itself.

Among them are medical, pharmaceutical and blood products, with medicament being the most in-demand, according to the last 12 years of data in the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) [3], an online platform developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that provides detailed visualizations and information on international trade and economic activities.

Overall records of medicament exports in the last 23 years (from 2000 to 2022) show that Cuba has filled its coffers with 41.9 million dollars from the African country. The figure, added to the 13.3 million dollars accumulated from the sale of biopreparations from blood products, plus the 113 141 USD from glands and other parts of the human or animal body, reaches 55 million dollars. The products that make up the items are marketed in the network of Cuban-owned pharmacies and public health institutions in Angola through FarmaCuba, a facilitator of biopharmaceutical exports in the Caribbean nation.

Reports from the official CubaPlus Magazine and other Cuban media confirm that the products of the Placental Histotherapy Center, derived from the human placenta for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes, have positioned themselves in the Angolan and Turkish markets. Among them, are Melagenina Plus for the treatment of vitiligo, the Biopla dietary supplement and cosmetic Amniotherapy, as well as Biomodulina T — which allegedly provides «preventive protection» against COVID-19 and is used to treat multiple sclerosis.

During 2014 and 2016, medicines and blood products represented, together, between 84 and 93 % of Cuba's exports to Angola, while in 2020 they constituted 86 %. In April 2020 alone, Cuba sent at least 30 tons of medicines (and more than 200 medical supplies) to combat COVID-19; among them, interferon, chloroquine, and azithromycin, according to press reports.

Cuba's commercial generosity with Angola contrasts with the drug crisis on the island, especially, with the lack of antibiotics such as azithromycin — which goes back to the said period and whose deficit reached, in official figures, 40 % in 2023.

While the export of the sector to the African country reached its highest point, with values of 8.3 million dollars in 2016, a chronology on the availability of medicines on the island, carried out by OnCuba, documented about 100 shortages that year. It also recorded the trend of decreasing drug coverage in 2017, and 38 fewer medications in 2018, while the following year there were 85 missing, including 16 controlled distribution drugs. 

The arrival of Cuban doctors in Angola in April 2020. The Media reported contradictory figures that range from 237 to 256 doctors. Photo: Government of Angola / Facebook

In 2020, Dr. José Ángel Portal Miranda, the current Minister of Public Health of Cuba, reported «116 missing medicines» that represented «16 % of the Basic Table of Medicines». Two years later, the average monthly deficit was 142 products produced by BioCubaFarma, according to statements by Tania Urquiza Rodríguez, vice president of the Cuban pharmaceutical group, to EFE.

At the same time, Cuba has considerably reduced the import of drugs, citing liquidity problems, while citizen requests for medicines, blood donations, and medical supplies are multiplying on social media.

The availability of blood and blood products on the island is in a similarly precarious situation. Between 1990 and 2022 alone, voluntary donations decreased by more than 39 %, while the deterioration of biosafety and hemovigilance measures increased due to the collapse of the health system. The health authorities, who are not accountable for the million-dollar sale of human body parts of Cubans to foreign clients, also do not remunerate blood donations as other countries do.

Preparations from blood and blood products of human or animal origin are used for prophylactic, therapeutic or diagnostic purposes. That is, they can be converted into medicines, plasma, serums, and vaccines. Official Cuban statistics do not report how the availability and transplants of blood, organs, and other parts of the human body impact the country. 

What is public knowledge is that Cuba has been selling blood and blood products since at least 1964, with dividends close to 63 million dollars in 2021 alone, as revealed by an investigation by María Werlau, executive director of the NGO Cuba Archive, based in Miami. Despite being a legitimate commercial activity, with high demand and whose global trade is valued at 228 billion dollars in 2022, in the case of Cuba it constitutes a concern due to the lack of transparency of figures and indicators, warns Werlau.

According to the expert, who is currently completing a more detailed investigation into the export of blood by the Cuban regime, «Cuba is a vampire state» that «sells pharmaceutical products, including blood fractions, mainly to its allies and friends, since the regulatory entities of these countries are much more vulnerable to being subordinated to political agendas».

Judging by the memorandum of understanding signed between regulatory entities for medicines and equipment in Cuba and Angola in August 2023, the commitment is to consolidate and develop the presence of products and procedures in the sub-Saharan nation. The previous agreement and others signed within the framework of the visit of the Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel to Angola, seek to revitalize the hiring, training, and training of Angolan personnel by Cuban specialists (which translates into more money for Antex).

The agreement, which provides for the creation and start-up of pharmaceutical factories in Angola, covers the branch of hemovigilance; that is, the monitoring of blood transfusion from donor selection, extraction, processing, and analysis of blood and its components to distribution and final administration to patients. In the process, Werlau warns, «it is expected that Cuba would transfer to Angola similar deficiencies» to those that exist on the island.

Cuba shows a non-stop exporting trend of medicines, biopreparations, equipment, and supplies manufactured on the island. Despite not satisfying national demand and amid a shortage of one-third of basic medication, BioCubaFarma maintains a production line that allows the export of its products to 73 countries, as confirmed in 2022 by the PhD in Sciences and researcher Agustín Lage Dávila, advisor to the pharma Group.

For more than a decade, Luanda has also purchased hearing devices and prostheses from Havana for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of hearing disorders. Since 2016, the Cuban audiology service has been operating in Angola with technology and software developed by Cuba’s Neuroscience Center.

The technical pack, branded as Neuronic, includes an academic program run by Cuban professionals for the training of Angolan colleagues and technicians, in the use and maintenance of the island's medical technology. It also allows for the expansion of Cuba’s know-how in Angola, which carries an undisclosed stream of income. However, Neuronic equipment has also been installed in Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, China, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. The latter recently signed a 6-million-dollar deal with Cuba for projects and contracts, according to a report from 14yMedio newspaper.

OEC records show that Cuba also exports to Angola, although to a lesser extent, ophthalmic and orthopedic medical equipment and instruments, as well as wheelchairs and therapeutic appliances.

According to promotional information published by the Cuban Medical Services (SMC), the priority in the export of health «packages» goes to «services that combine medical professionals, nursing professionals, health technologies and technicians...», based on the client’s demand. They include products from Cuban companies in alliance with BioCubaFarma, Labiofam, Inversiones Gamma, and the Ministry of Industries. 

«Consulting services are also provided for the design, construction, equipping, assembly and start-up of healthcare and teaching facilities, repair and maintenance of medical equipment, consultancy for the operation of specialized medical transport, and consultancy in the management of healthcare, research and teaching services», the site states.

Other businesses: perfumes, IT and propaganda

In addition to medicines, blood products, and medical technology, from 2000 to 2016, Cuba has exported pesticides, oils, and laboratory reagents worth about 8.4 million dollars, as well as perfumes, alcoholic beverages, and cars; although in the last twelve years, the total values of the last three are negligible (they barely add up to 1.7 million dollars).

Through the previous items, Cuba has introduced dozens of its most popular brands and products into Angola. Within the beauty brand Suchel Camacho S. A. (S&C), the fragrances Alicia, Mariposa, Elements, Tentación, D Habana, Romeo y Julieta, and Vegueros are sold for figures that reach up to 40 USD per unit. They can be found in Meditex pharmacies, in the S&C store, in Luanda, and in the online shop BayQi. The marketing of Suchel perfumes dates back to at least 2005 and has maintained an upward trend. In 2021 alone it accounted for 49 % of Cuban exports to Angola.

From the Havana Club International brand, Havana Club rum is known and sold in supermarkets, and from the tobacco company, Habanos S. A. has allowed S&C to use the names of Cuban cigars Romeo y Julieta as well as Vegueros to promote its brand through the fragrances from the island. Cuba also exports cigar rollers but to a lesser extent.

A 2015 article in OnCuba magazine stated that for three years there had been an agreement «for the development of projects related to information and communication technologies, as well as the Interoperability Strategy for the Government of Angola».

As a result of the deal, the Cuban commercial company Albet carried out work in Angola under the Antex umbrella, namely in the installation of Mediatecas, a Media Library Network that specializes in multimedia content that promotes digital inclusion and the creation of jobs. In parallel, Imbondex also signed IT contracts with the company Global Telesat. Albet, with more than 150 million dollars in annual income, was created by the University of Computer Sciences (UCI), a high education center in Havana known for its large-scale cyber campaigns against dissidents.

Likewise, in 2014 Cuban television arrived in the African nation after the signing of an agreement between the satellite television distributor ZAP and the state-owned Cubavisión Internacional to transmit the Cuban channel in Angola and Mozambique, which extended official propaganda to 56 countries, according to the Expansion newspaper.

The National Insurance Company of Cuba (ESEN) also benefits from the provision of services in Angola, through the purchasing by the collaborator of a mandatory life insurance policy «before leaving for abroad», which must be extended for the remainder of the mission, as per employment contracts.

The coverage can reach «up to 25 000 pesos in the case of a permanent health condition, and 5 000 if it is temporary», says Maritza. The cost, which can reach about 1 000 pesos a year, depends on the age and illnesses of the insured, according to sources familiar with the insurance system who prefer not to be mentioned.

As a study on exports of Health services highlights, the provision of Cuban services abroad, especially in the health sector, demands an extensive logistical and resource network for its optimal functioning which, at least in Angola, are managed, to a large extent, by Cuban companies that interconnect with each other.

Antex currently absorbs the revenue and niche markets while replacing the services that were once provided by Angolans. Interconnection generates productive chains that, in turn, allow them to expand their businesses in global value chains which leads to the expansion of investment opportunities.

As part of the commercial network between both countries, Angola has also incurred nine-digit debts with Cuba worth 300 million dollars. In retaliation for non-payment, Antex returned hundreds of health workers to the island in 2015, which impacted healthcare and teaching coverage. At that time, Cubans made up 40 % of Angola's doctors and 70 % of health personnel in the African nation. The situation called into question the principle of non-interference within South-South Cooperation that guides the exchange between both countries.

Shortly after, the then president of the African country approved a loan for 48 million euros to settle the debt with Antex and, without revealing details of its renegotiation, the official press announced that the dispute was resolved and some of the doctors returned to Angola.

From that moment on, the number of collaborators was reduced to half of the numbers before the scandal and has never again increased, despite Cuba’s attempts to revitalize the export of services. During the period of friction between both allies, Angola even rejected the arrival of 189 Cuban doctors, according to Martí Noticias, and Antex was forced not to extend the contract to dozens of medics, including Dr. José, who was sent back to the island at the end of his first year of mission because «the Government of Angola no longer wanted general doctors», he recalls.

Put in numbers, from just over 4 000 hired in 2014, there were around 3 000 remaining in 2015 which was reduced to a further 2 040 on average in the last five years.

In line with the decrease in the rendering of professional services, partly conditioned by the oil price drop, the export of certain Cuban products began to experience a contraction after the 2014-2016 golden era. However, in the last 23 years, there has been a slight increase at an annualized rate of 0.72 %, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

The available income from the provision of services, business, and industrial activity in Angola, as well as total exports worth 116.7 million dollars, suggest that Cuba's dividends could reach 6.644 billion dollars in the last quarter of a century under Antex management. The figure, only reflecting publicly available agreements and exports, does not include revenue from the training of Angolans in Cuba or Antex charges for the shipment of household goods. If they are to be included, the amount could exceed 6.755 billion dollars, which translates into 270.2 million dollars per year, according to the data accessed so far.

Angola is a country with reduced security and social assistance coverage, limited financial control, and serious transparency problems, which provide the ideal breeding ground for speculation and corruption. The above, added to the preferential treatment that Cuba receives due to the history of its bilateral relations and involvement in the war (despite proven records of non-compliance and non-payments) revert to economic benefits that support the island's military caste to the detriment of its best product, the human resources.

This makes it possible for an intensivist pediatrician, professor, and doctor in Medical Sciences to be sent to a medical post in the middle of the jungle in Cabinda so that his hospital position in the capital, due to favoritism from the leadership, could be given to a «family doctor with very little experience that did not even know how to operate a mechanical ventilator», recalls Dr. Arteaga. «We were like pawns», he says. 

Or that, also at the risk of Public Health, soldiers without training or medical competence decide to abruptly terminate employment contracts without justification or compensation for the worker, as happened to Dr. José.

In the words of jurist Julio Antonio Fernández Estrada, «the workforce is treated as a basic means of state companies and the central administration bodies of the State». Even the most faithful militant realizes this.

«I have always been very revolutionary, although at this moment I think I was part of the revolution that did not exist» — laments Maritza, a former health worker in Angola. «On the mission, I realized that they used me and that things were not as I thought. It was like I came out of a bubble».

For former Cuban collaborator and intellectual Anamely Ramos, the explanation lies in the business structure of Antex in Angola (typical of colonial power relations) and in the systemic violations imposed by the Cuban military that «dehumanizes» and alienates those it hires in the provision of human services.

«These are missions that sell to the world an image of solidarity, of altruism of the Cuban people, while, in reality, they are designed for that altruism, and other good nature actions, not to be genuine» — explains Ramos. «They are conceived in an extractive way, as a service that is provided and paid for, preventing you from getting fully involved. The structure is designed from a colonialist-driven business approach». 

[1] In press releases, they celebrate the anniversary of Antex on December 19 (1989), however, the registration in the Ministry of Justice appears on June 6, 1990. 

[2] Company names are translated for clarity in the body of text.

[3] OEC figures were last accessed on March 16, 2024.

This is the second of two-parts investigation Cuba's mission in Angola produce with the support of CONNECTAS.

https://eltoque.com/en/cubas-mission-I-in-angola-the-business-of-solidarity