Cuba’s Supreme Court Confirms Life Sentence for Gil
The ex-deputy prime minister was convicted of espionage and corruption
The ruling puts an end to two appeals in a case that mixed economic crimes, leaks about Venezuela, and espionage.
HAVANA TIMES – The People’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday to uphold two convictions against Alejandro Gil Fernandez, former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Economy of Cuba, including a life sentence for espionage. The decision, confirmed to 14ymedio by sources close to the process, definitively closed the appeals filed by the defense both in the espionage case and in the one grouping a dozen corruption-related crimes.
According to the court’s notice to the parties, the appeals filed against the sentences handed down after the trials held last November were not admitted. On December 8, the Supreme Court itself had announced the rulings: life imprisonment for espionage and 20 years in prison for crimes such as embezzlement, bribery, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Gil was removed from his positions in February 2024 and, barely a month later, the authorities announced his arrest and the opening of a judicial investigation for “serious errors.” In November, the Office of the Attorney General formally charged him with eleven crimes, although it was the espionage charge that marked a qualitative shift in the case and elevated it to the plane of “treason to the homeland.”
In an official statement, the Supreme Court declared that the former minister had “deceived the country’s leadership and the people he represented, thereby causing damage to the economy,” and that he had failed to comply with protocols for handling classified information, removed it, and made it “available to enemy intelligence services.” For the judges, these acts justify a “severe criminal response,” as they constitute “the most serious of crimes.”
Gil’s downfall has no recent precedent. A figure close to President Miguel Díaz-Canel and a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, he had until recently been one of the most visible faces of the cabinet. His tenure was associated with the implementation of the Tarea Ordenamiento, the 2021 monetary reform that eliminated the dual currency system and ultimately provoked a sharp devaluation of the peso, uncontrolled inflation, and the current de facto dollarization of the economy. He was also responsible for cautiously opening space for small private businesses and for applying unpopular adjustment measures, such as the increase in fuel prices of up to 400%.
However, beyond the official narrative, the case takes on a greater political dimension because of the mention of Venezuela in the accusation. Leaked information to which this outlet had access reveals that the prosecution argued that Gil had spied for United States intelligence services, handing over sensitive information that directly affected the strategic relationship between Cuba and Venezuela.
The report, signed by Edward Roberts Campbell, chief prosecutor of the Directorate for Combating Corruption and Illegalities, states that the former minister had facilitated classified data to “an unidentified agent, but allegedly belonging to the CIA,” compromising “Venezuelan national security.” Among the leaked information were said to be bilateral economic transactions, oil agreements, financial triangulation schemes, the deployment of Cuban medical brigades, and even details on Cuban support in cybersecurity and counterintelligence to Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
The accusation goes further still: it includes alleged personal data of Maduro himself, his family, his residence, assets inside and outside Venezuela—including Cuba—and details of his security ring made up of Cuban officers from the Ministry of the Interior and the Revolutionary Armed Forces. All of this was presented as an operation aimed at “undermining Venezuelan sovereignty and overthrowing its legitimate president.”
Nevertheless, the development of the case itself presents contradictions that are hard to ignore. According to testimonies consulted by 14ymedio, in August 2022 it had been planned that Díaz-Canel would meet with Maduro, but State Security recommended that Gil go in his place due to the “high level of trust” placed in him. The meeting took place at the Miraflores Palace and was widely covered by state media in both countries.
The subsequent chronology becomes even more contradictory. If, as pro-government programs claim, Gil had been under investigation since at least 2020, it is difficult to explain why in 2022 and 2023 he was authorized to travel at the highest level, accompanying Diaz-Canel on a tour through China, Algeria, Russia, and Turkey, and being appointed Cuba’s sole representative to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
A source with access to the prosecution’s case admits not knowing whether the imputations related to Venezuela were proven with conclusive evidence during the trial. “I cannot affirm that it was demonstrated that Gil handed over sensitive information to the CIA nor that those actions justified the life sentence,” the source said.
The international context adds another layer of interpretation. The emphasis on Venezuela and on a supposed “internal traitor” aligns with the narrative of confrontation with Washington under the administration of Donald Trump, which has opted to intensify pressure against Venezuela and Havana’s allies.
Thus, the trial of Alejandro Gil not only seals the downfall of the most powerful official to be purged in at least 15 years, but exposes the internal tensions of a system that, amid economic collapse and international isolation, appears to require visible culprits. If Gil was a spy, he was one with inexplicable freedom; and if he was not, his conviction illustrates how far power can go when it decides to protect those who operate at the top.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.