Jorge Mas Canosa

Iglesias & Torres

In 1969, Mas Canosa went into business with the owners of Iglesias y Torres, a floundering and overextended construction firm that constructed and serviced telephone networks in Puerto Rico. Renaming the company Church & Tower, Mas Canosa obtained a $50,000 loan and became a part owner. Managing Miami operations, he used his growing reputation in the exile community to secure lines of credit and was ultimately able to optimize his workers' construction methods and increase the company's productivity. The company grew from South Miami to Ft. Lauderdale with $40 million in annual revenues in 1980. Church & Tower became the basis for a telecommunications empire that made Mas Canosa one of the richest Hispanic businessmen in the United States; his net worth was estimated at more than $100 million when he died in 1997.

MasTec

Following the incorporation of Mas Canosa's sons into the business became MasTec, Inc. in 1994 when Jorge Mas led a reverse acquisition by its former competitor, Burnup & Sims. As of 2015, MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ) is a $4.2 billion revenue infrastructure construction company with approximately 15,900 employees and 470 locations. MasTec is a leader in six distinct business lines. Power Generation and Industrial renewable, Natural Gas and Oil Pipeline, Electrical Transmission, Wireless, Wireline Utility Services and DirecTV install to the home.

Relationship with Luis Posada Carriles

CIA records from the National Security archive reveal that Mas Canosa paid Luis Posada Carriles, $5000 to cover the expenses of a demolition operation in Mexico. According to Luis Posada Carriles, in 1985, Mas Canosa financed Carriles's escape from a prison of maximum security in Venezuela, where he was imprisoned for being the intellectual author of the [[Cubana de Aviación Flight 455

|explosion of a Cuban airliner]] that resulted in the death of 73 civilians.

Cuban American National Foundation

In 1981, Mas Canosa, along with Raul Masvidal and Carlos Salman, established the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), at the suggestion of Richard Allen, Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor, and Mario Elgarresta, a member of Allen's staff. The group was founded as part of a broader strategy to sideline more moderate perspectives within the Cuban-American community, and to convert anti-Castro activism from a more militant to a more political strategy. CANF was widely described during Mas Canosa's tenure as one of the most powerful ethnic lobbying organizations in the US, and used campaign contributions to advance its policy in Washington, DC. Carter administration officials believed that if not for Mas Canosa, the United States might have ended the Cuban embargo. Mas Canosa has received criticism from prominent journalists such as Christopher Hitchens who called Mas Canosa the caudillo of the Cuban-American National Foundation.

New Republic lawsuit

Mas Canosa sued The New Republic for libel after a 1994 article in the magazine referred to him as a "mobster". The case settled out of court for $100,000, and the magazine issued an apology for the title which was chosen without participation of the author of the article Ann Louise Bardach. After the settlement, The New Republic still stands behind the article itself, stating that nothing in the article requires clarification, correction or apology as nothing in it has been proven false or libelous.