The Truth on the Case of Ex-Cuban Minister Alejandro Gil

Alejandro Gil, former Minister of Economy and Planning, was dismissed in February 2024 / Cubadebate

By Reinaldo Escobar (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – Those who rule in Cuba, from the powers that emanate from their positions, promised that there would be transparency in the trial of Alejandro Gil, former deputy prime minister and former minister of Economy. But instead of transparency, opacity has prevailed, not to say the darkest secrecy.

After that “Official Note of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic” published in the official newspaper Granma on March 7, 2024, the only comment that has been heard from an official source was that of the Comptroller of the Republic, Gladys Bejerano, who, in an interview with the EFE agency on May 21, 2024, said that what happened with Gil felt “like a betrayal.” Two months later she was removed from her position as part of the “process of normal renewal of the cadres.”

Exercising the right to speculation (without abusing it) granted by government secrecy for a whole year, I dare to launch these hypotheses:

Alejandro Gil is innocent of the charges attributed to him, and to the surprise of his kind interrogators he has resisted all pressure to accept guilt.

Alejandro Gil is partially or totally guilty of the charges against him, but he has threatened to say everything he knows about those who are hierarchically above his old position, which has prevented or delayed their indispensable public presentation.

The charges that are imputed to him could be related to acts of corruption, such as appropriating funds intended for social use or declaring money as representing expenses that he later pocketed; nepotism, by taking advantage of his position to benefit private businesses of family or friends; adulterating in his reports the real data of the economy for the purpose of pretending to be successful in his management. Furthermore, salacious data about his personal morality could be included, and even worse, accusations of passing information to the enemy or that he intended to promote measures aimed at demolishing the socialist system.

And one last hypothesis: We will never find out what really happened.

Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.

One thought on “The Truth on the Case of Ex-Cuban Minister Alejandro Gil

  • The writer is entitled to his fictional writing endeavours. Some of us will go by the facts on the ground which make Alejandro Gil Fernandez a most despicable hypocrite and criminal. Let us begin at the real beginning of this scandal. It takes place in the United States, not in Cuba! It is the U.S. Border and Customs Patrol that discovers money illegally concealed on the person of Alejandro Gil’s mule! Anyone who has traveled through Jose Marti International Airport will marvel at how on earth, the mule got through the security procedures at that airport. How was it that the 360 degree Xray machine did not reveal any concealed money on the person of Mirtza Ocaña! And how is it that in one year she made 45 trips without discovery in Cuba? I salute the wonderful work done at Tampa International Airport by U.S. Border and Customs Patrol! However, this is not to say that the ordinary workers of Cuban Airport security are not diligent. On the contrary. Never has my luggage been lost. And once a very small pair of mustache scissors in my carry-on bag was seized during the security procedures before flight back to the States. This goes to show, I contend, that Mirtza had high-powered collaborators at Jose Marti airport, one way or another. The corrupt use of a VIP exit cannot be ruled out.
    What happened before the case initially became public. Fernandez was treated with kid gloves. He was praised for his service to Cuba, and we were told he had been replaced and would be re-assigned other duties without explanation. When Mirtza’s revelations became known, then we were told Gil had resigned his various posts and memberships. As El Toque’s insightful analysis republished by Havana Times revealed, the resignations were contrary to established procedures of the Cuban constitution and laws of the PCC. It was not for Gil to resign. He had to appear before both state and party organs and essentially be tried. This was not done and the Cuban public was never informed of his whereabouts and what fate awaits him. Everything related to this case has been hush-hushed. The man that, in his supreme arrogance, detached from all reality and contact with the working class, ushered in a most devastating period of dollarization in Cuba following a privileged posting as an Insurance Representative in London, got away with the despicable crime of smuggling foreign currency to the United States while millions of ordinary Cubans suffered and still suffer from inadequate food and other necessities.

    With the revelations of Mirtza Ocaña – God bless her – the corruption of the Raulistas has been fully exposed. Alejandro Gil and his enablers are fully guilty of the despicable crime of corruption, currency smuggling and shameless hypocrisy!

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