Havana/The Supreme People’s Court (TSP) declared this Friday final the two convictions against Alejandro Gil Fernández, former vice prime minister and former Minister of Economy of Cuba, including life imprisonment for espionage. The decision, confirmed aa 14ymedio by sources close to the process, definitively closed the appeal route presented by the defense both in the espionage case and in the file that grouped a dozen crimes linked to corruption.
According to what the court informed the parties, the appeals filed against the sentences handed down after the trial held last November, in a double hearing, were not admitted. On December 8, the TSP itself had announced the rulings: life sentence for espionage and 20 years in prison for crimes such as embezzlement, bribery, tax evasion and money laundering.
Gil was dismissed from his positions in February 2024 and, just a month later, the authorities announced his arrest and the opening of a judicial investigation for “serious errors.” In November, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic formalized the accusation for eleven crimes, although it was the charge of espionage that marked a qualitative turn in the case and elevated it to the level of “betrayal of the Homeland.”
In an official statement, the TSP stated that the former minister “deceived the leadership of the country and the people he represented, thereby causing damage to the economy,” and that he failed to comply with the protocols for handling classified information, stealing it and putting it “at the disposal of enemy services.” For judges, these acts justify a “severe criminal response,” as it is the “most serious of crimes.”
The case takes on a greater political dimension due to the mention of Venezuela in the accusation
Gil’s fall 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 was until recently one of the most visible faces of the cabinet. His management was associated with the implementation of the Ordering Task, the 2021 monetary reform that eliminated the double currency and that ended up causing a strong devaluation of the peso, uncontrolled inflation and the current de facto dollarization of the economy. He was also in charge of opening, within limits, space to small private companies and applying unpopular adjustment measures, such as raising fuel prices by up to 400%.
However, beyond the official narrative, the case takes on a greater political dimension due to the mention of Venezuela in the accusation. Leaked information to which this media had access reveals that the Prosecutor’s Office maintained that Gil would have spied for the United States intelligence services, delivering sensitive information that directly affected the strategic relationship between Havana and Caracas.
The report, signed by Edward Roberts Campbellchief prosecutor of the Directorate for Combating Corruption and Illegalities, points out that the former minister would have provided classified data to “an unidentified agent, but presumably belonging to the CIA,” compromising “Venezuelan national security.” Among the leaked information would be bilateral economic transactions, oil agreements, financial triangulation schemes, the sending of Cuban medical brigades and even details of Cuban support in cybersecurity and counterespionage to the Nicolás Maduro regime.
The accusation goes even further: it includes alleged personal data of Maduro himself, his family, his home, assets inside and outside Venezuela – including Cuba – and details of the security ring made up of Cuban soldiers 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.”
The emphasis on Venezuela and an alleged “internal traitor” coincides with the narrative of confrontation with Washington
However, the very development of the case leaves cracks that are difficult to ignore. According to testimonies consulted by 14ymedioIn August 2022, Díaz-Canel was scheduled to meet with Maduro, but State Security recommended that Gil attend instead, due to the “high trust” placed in him. The meeting took place at the Miraflores Palace and was widely reported by the official press of both countries.
The subsequent chronology is even more contradictory. If, as official programs maintain, Gil has 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 Díaz-Canel on a tour of China, Algeria, Russia and Turkey, and being designated Cuba’s sole representative before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
A source with access to the prosecution admits that he does not know if the accusations related to Venezuela were proven with conclusive evidence during the trial. “I cannot affirm that it was proven that Gil provided sensitive information to the CIA nor that these facts supported the life sentence,” he says.
The international context adds another layer of reading. The emphasis on Venezuela and an alleged “internal traitor” coincides with the narrative of confrontation with Washington under the Donald Trump Administration, which has opted for toughening pressure against allies in Caracas and Havana.
Thus, the trial of Alejandro Gil not only seals the fall of the most powerful official purged in at least 15 years, but also exposes the internal tensions of a system that, in the face of economic collapse and international isolation, seems to need visible culprits. If Gil was a spy, he was so with an inexplicable freedom; and if it was not, his conviction illustrates how far power can go when it decides to protect those who operate at high altitudes.
