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The Cuban journalist Ana Teresa Badía described former Vice Prime Minister and former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernández as "cynical, despicable, and treacherous" after he was charged with serious crimes, and called for clarification on how his work was monitored within the Government.
The day before, an insubstantial note from the Attorney General of the Republic released by official media reported that Gil had been charged with offenses including espionage, embezzlement, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, and influence peddling.
According to the statement, the investigation was overseen by the Ministry of the Interior, and it was requested that "deprivation of liberty sanctions" be applied to the defendants, in accordance with the committed acts.
In this regard, Badía reacted strongly on his Facebook account, and in addition to the insults directed at the official, he questioned how his performance in the position was being monitored.
“How did they control and evaluate his work?” the reporter emphasized regarding Gil, who even exchanged enthusiastic public messages of congratulations and gratitude with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, four days after his dismissal, in February 2024.
Badía also requested that the names of the other individuals involved in the case be disclosed and that the trial be publicly broadcasted “for the sake of informational transparency.”
"This entire process should be exemplary, in a context where, painfully, the corruption of public officials is gaining ground," he added.
The journalist also criticized the speech that the former minister used to blame the population for the country's economic problems. “With his mocking and blatant lie… the fault always lay with the people, whom he had to shout at,” she wrote.
Criticisms from Badía were joined by former diplomat and political analyst Carlos Alzugaray, who through the social network itself supported his statements and warned about the political moment in which the accusation was made public.
"It is very striking that after months of complete secrecy, this statement from the Prosecutor's Office is published, which says a lot but communicates nothing," he pointed out.
Alzugaray suggested that the decision to disclose the case at this moment could be part of a political strategy leading up to the next Congress of the Communist Party (April 2026), where, he said, it will be necessary to “explain to the delegates what happened and seek support for the renewal of the leadership, starting with the president and first secretary, but also including the vice president, prime minister, and other members of the high hierarchy.”
The combination of both statements, from a pro-government journalist and a former diplomat, reveals an unusual level of internal criticism regarding a case that calls into question the oversight and transparency at the highest levels of Cuban power.
Likewise, the Cuban actor Luis Alberto García reacted with sarcasm to the official announcement from the former vice prime minister, who in his opinion will be judged for a range of crimes that seem taken from a high-level corruption novel.
"That man would have to be 'very foolish' to have tried to position himself as the only rotten potato in that sack," García remarked sarcastically.
The case of Alejandro Gil Fernández, previously regarded as one of the most trusted men of Miguel Díaz-Canel's government, marks a new episode in the credibility crisis of the Cuban leadership, amid an unprecedented economic decline.
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