The second secret trial of former Minister Gil Fernández began today in Marianao

Havana/Madrid/Not only behind closed doors, but without having announced it publicly beforehand, that is, in total secrecy, the second trial of the former Minister of Economy and Planning began this Wednesday, Alejandro Gil Fernandezprocessed two weeks ago for espionage. The hearing, in which he is tried for more than a dozen crimes, such as embezzlement, tax evasion, influence peddling and money laundering, took place from 9:30 in the morning and in the same place, the Popular Civil and Family Court of Marianao, in Havana.

The surrounding area was under surveillance from the first hour, as confirmed by 14ymedioalthough with a smaller operation than the first day of espionage trialwhen surrounding streets and businesses were closed. Unlike on that occasion, there was no press stationed outside the court, although a man could be seen with a camera visibly hanging.

According to a source close to the case, who requests anonymity, the two children of the former minister, Alejandro and Laura María Gil González, attended this Wednesday’s hearing, forced to sign a confidentiality clause. At the first trial, which Alejandro Gil González also attended, his sister, Laura María, was not allowed entry after having requested, through social networks and in several publications, a “public and open” process for his father.

The regime reported on the first process with less than 24 hours noticethrough a statement read on state television, but this time, not even that. The official media is covered today by the face of Fidel Castro, as yesterday Tuesday marks nine years since his death.

An informant from 14ymedio He said that the case for which Gil Fernández is being tried this Wednesday has about twenty more defendantsamong them “a deputy of the National Assembly of People’s Power and a secretary of the Communist Party.” The Prosecutor’s Office, this same source reported, requested 30 years for the former minister, while “all the others are asked for a minimum sentence of 15 years.”

No resolution of the first trial has emerged so far, except that, according to the former minister’s sister, María Victoria Gil Fernández, corroborated by the source of this newspaper, the lawyer Abel Solá López He made a “brilliant” defense.

In an interview granted four days ago to the Cuban journalist living in Miami Mario J. PentónMaría Victoria (Vicky) Gil assured that her brother is accused of having spied for the United States and that any case against the former minister was instigated by Manuel MarreroPrime Minister and Army Colonel. It would be a plot hatched by the military sector of the regime, whose economic interests were affected by the Ordering Task, the monetary and exchange unification process that began on January 1, 2021 and was managed by Gil Fernández.

It was Marrero – said the former presenter of De la Gran Escena based on what she was informed by a “very reliable” source that she could not name – who called Alejandro Gil Fernández on February 1, 2024, to tell me that his work as Minister of Economy and Planning had not borne “the expected results” and the next day he would be replaced.

When the former official appeared before the prime minister to hand over the portfolio, it was found that two State Security agents were next to Marrero, who informed him that he was “under investigation.” It was then that he was arrested and taken, along with his wife, Gina María González García, to a safe house, from where she was exonerated and he was sent directly to the Guanajay maximum security prison, in Artemisa.

Until he was removed from office, Gil Fernández was not only Minister of Economy and Planning, but also Deputy Prime Minister and right-hand man of Miguel Díaz-Canel. On March 7, 2024, criminal proceedings were initially announced against the official, in a brief note signed by the president himself alleging, without further details, “serious errors committed in the performance of his duties.”

The next thing that was known about the case, 20 months later, was the statement from the Prosecutor’s Office last Friday, where, without providing numbers or names, it spoke of “other defendants” and reported that Gil was accused of “espionage, acts detrimental to economic activity or contracting, embezzlement, bribery, falsification of public documents, tax evasion, influence peddling, money laundering, violation of the rules for the protection of classified documents and theft and damage to documents or other objects in official custody.”