Havana/The daughter of the former Cuban Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández, has reacted a few hours after learning of the espionage accusation against her father. Laura María Gil González has demanded transparency and a public and televised trial that the international and independent press can also access. “What measures did he propose to the country by express order of another State, what evidence do they have, what was his pseudonym?” the woman asked about her father’s alleged role as a spy.
Appealing to the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba and the recognition that the Magna Carta makes of the “freedom of expression of all citizens”, Gil González has broken the long silence that he had maintained until now, more than 20 months after the official note announcing a criminal case against the official, without initially detailing the crime with which he was accused.
This Friday, a brief text published by the Attorney General’s Office listed a long list of crimes against Gil Fernández, which include espionage, embezzlement, money laundering and falsification of public documents, in a case that includes several defendants of whom identity unknown. After that announcement, the daughter of the former deputy prime minister has chosen not to remain silent.
To explain his long silence, Gil González argues that he had not spoken out until now to “protect the image of our country and avoid popular discontent or an international conflict at all costs.” It also states among its reasons for discretion that of “respecting at all times the due process followed and collaborating efficiently throughout the process.” instruction process“.
With irony, she claims to be pleased because the Cuban Government “has so efficiently put into practice the Law of Transparency and Access to public information, with high consistency and without precedent.” However, he points out that “small details remained loose that have encouraged popular speculation” and based on this claim, he demands that they be “totally transparent.”
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According to the daughter, the espionage accusation “has been the cornerstone of this investigation” against his father and warns that it is necessary to complete the public information that until now is scarce and fragmented. “What country or countries are we referring to, since when, what were their means of communication, what did they receive in return, where did they hold their meetings, in what settings, with whom, under the direct order of the person doing it, what information did they reveal?” he questions, with the same tone of disbelief that runs through his entire publication.
The woman believes that “the government(s) for which she supposedly worked and received instructions should make an official statement on the matter in question.” The crime of espionage, which on the island can carry up to the death penalty, is “a very serious accusation, which transcends the Cuban political sphere and leads to an international case.”
As many other Cubans have claimed on social networks after learning of the Prosecutor’s Office note, Gil González joins “the popular request for an open-door trial, where everyone who wishes participates, and it is televised live on Cuban television and on Cubavisión international, with the participation of official and unofficial media outlets.”
The oral hearing, demands the daughter of the former minister, must be able to be broadcast “live by foreign television networks that are present.” She clarifies that this request is not exclusively hers, but that Alejandro Gil Fernández himself “is also demanding it, not from today but from day one.”
“I join the popular call to bring transparency in this case to its maximum expression, the people demand it, the family demands it, and Gil also demands it,” the woman emphasizes. To avoid reprisals, Gil González clarifies that his publication “is not offensive or destructive, it does not incite violence or popular rebellion, it does not reveal state secrets or disparage the actions of the Ministry of the Interior, the Comptroller General of the Republic, the Attorney General’s Office, the Presidency of Cuba or any other Cuban or international institution linked to the case in question.”
“I join the popular call to bring transparency in this case to its maximum expression”
To conclude her text, which in a few minutes has accumulated dozens of comments of support and also criticism, the daughter of the former minister assures that “any retaliation that could be taken by the Government against me or any of my loved ones would be totally illegal and violate my human rights of freedom of expression and self-defense, recognized in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.”
As a witness to the whole processthe woman clarifies that her father “remains firm in his defense and will not recognize under any circumstances, no crime that he be charged and that it is not duly verified.” In his opinion, in the case against Gil Fernández “the truth will triumph.”
The former minister, who was one of the key men of the regime, has not appeared in public since his dismissal in February of last year. Before that, his rise had been meteoric. He was appointed Minister of Economy and Planning by Díaz-Canel in 2018. The following year he also held the position of Deputy Prime Minister. He became one of the most visible faces of the unpopular Ordering Task which, implemented in January 2021, has unleashed runaway inflation and further aggravated the economic crisis and poverty.
