Madrid/When in 2018 the Cuban jurist Edward Roberts Campbell “ratified the absence of political corruption” on the Island before the Peruvian Congress, little did he imagine that he would end up asking for a 20-year prison sentence against the former Minister of Economy himself. Alejandro Gil. Or yes. The current chief prosecutor of the Directorate of Confrontation with Corruption and Illegalities has been in charge of putting the ousted official on the ropes in the second trial against him, held last November 26 and for four days.
Roberts Campbell has been a prosecutor since 1986, although this has not prevented him from combining the position – contrary to common practice in most Western countries – with his status as a deputy. Precisely as a member of the National Assembly, he went to Lima, within the framework of the Third Meeting of the ParlAméricas Open Parliament Network, to defend that economic crimes associated with the provision of services or the diversion of goods exist, “but this has nothing to do with the State in particular.”
The statement was striking for a man who, if there is one thing he should know well, is the clientelist networks that plague the Cuban regime, those that, in fact, he has so many times admitted as his Achilles heel. Specialist in Criminal Law and Specialist in Public Administration at the National Defense College, Roberts Campbell has been in the Military Prosecutor’s Office, in the municipal of Batabanó, in the Provincial of Mayabeque and in Havana, with various positions, including leadership. Thus until reaching the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, where he has been head of criminal proceedings and, since December 22, 2020, responsible for the anti-corruption area.
Such a long and distinguished career has made him a regular at El Paccto, a cooperation program financed by the European Union.
Such a long and distinguished career has made him a regular at The Pact (Assistance Program against Transnational Organized Crime), a cooperation program financed by the European Union to “promote citizen security and the rule of law in Latin America.” The project’s fundamental objectives are to strengthen cooperation between police, courts and penitentiary systems with five axes: cybercrime, corruption, human rights, gender and money laundering.
The organizers have considered this program a success, to the point that the first edition (2017-2022, to which 19 million euros were allocated) has given way to a second (2023-2027), in which the funds have multiplied to 58.8 million euros, since 14 Caribbean countries have now been added to the 18 Latin American countries of the previous phase.
Edward Roberts Campbell has participated in at least two editions, 2018 and 2025, as his photographs on social networks show. The good intentions of Brussels, which seeks to train and advise with courses and workshops officials from very different countries with problems in their police and justice systems – the organizations with which it cooperates in Cuba – could not have failed more miserably for the purposes of the project, among which the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor’s Office itself and the Ministry of Justice stand out, in addition to other organizations, including the Central Bank.
Regarding “incorporation of human rights, the protection of young people and gender equality in justice and security policies” and the construction of more effective, transparent and rights-based criminal justice systems, contributing to safer and more just societies” – some of its objectives –, the Cuban judges who have participated in the annual meeting, Robert Campbell among them, have learned little or nothing.
The judge has also been part of the Cuban delegation to the UN to defend the island’s penal system before the Committee against Torture.
Robert Campbell, who is no longer a deputy, is a very active user of social networks, where he gives a good account of revolutionary thought and frequently shares some publications related to his position. Among the latest, the interview in Granma to the doctor in Legal Sciences Arnel Medina Cuenca, who explained to the official media the judicial guarantees that Alejandro Gil could benefit from.
To the former minister, finally sentenced to life sentence Due to the joint sanction of the two trials, Paula Joaquina Rodríguez Sánchez, magistrate of the State Security crimes chamber, imposed her sentence. In her case, and due to the very nature of the field in which she specializes, her career leaves some no less relevant sentences.
The most notable is the cassation of one of the trials against 9/11 protesters on the corner of Toyo, in Havana. In that trial, 30 people had the long prison sentences imposed by the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre reduced in May 2022, mainly minors. Rodríguez Sánchez was, precisely, the rapporteur of that appeal, which positioned her as a repressor for some organizations such as Prisoners Defenders, having ratified the majority of the sentences.
The judge has also been part of the Cuban delegation to the UN to defend before the United Nations Committee Against Torture the island’s penal system. She, along with her colleagues, has rejected the content of the reports that accused the State of “committing torture and cruel treatment against prisoners of conscience and human rights activists.”
That appointment took place in 2022 – just like the aforementioned cassation ruling. On both dates, Alejandro Gil was part of the Government. Now, the tables have turned and the head of the Cuban Economy will spend his entire life behind bars due to the joint work of Edward Roberts Campbell and Paula Joaquina Rodríguez Sánchez.
