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“It is the best attorney in Cuba,” said María Victoria Gil, sister of former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernández, referring to the lawyer who is representing her brother in the legal proceedings he faces for charges of espionage, embezzlement, and money laundering.
In exclusive statements to CiberCuba, the former Cuban presenter revealed that her brother's defender is Abel Alejandro Solá López, the son of the veteran jurist Luis Solá Vila, a historical figure in Cuban law and former ambassador to the United Nations.
According to the independent media 14ymedio, Solá López has a law firm in the municipality of Playa, Havana, and has participated as a defense attorney in several cases related to crimes against state security. Among them is a 2017 espionage case involving Alina López Miyares and her husband Félix Martín Milanés Fajardo, who were sentenced to 13 and 17 years in prison, respectively.
That background, within a category of cases that have historically been managed with maximum confidentiality and political control, places Solá López in the small group of trusted lawyers for the regime in matters of high institutional sensitivity.
The weight of a surname within the system
His father, Luis Solá Vila, is the president of the Cuban Society of International Law, a founding member of the National Union of Lawyers of Cuba (UNJC), a former dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Havana, and a former ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
Awarded the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes National Law Award (2017), Solá Vila has held multiple legal advisory positions in the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Communications, and other state entities, participating in the drafting of laws, decrees, and agreements that define the current legal framework.
In 2018, he publicly defended the Cuban political system as “a participatory democracy distinct from that of other nations,” and in subsequent conferences, he denounced “the violations of the United Nations Charter by the United States,” reaffirming his loyalty to the official narrative.
That institutional legacy permeates the professional environment in which his son was educated, whose career appears to follow in his father's footsteps, but is focused on criminal law and defense in sensitive cases for the Cuban state.
The lawyer of a political case
The case of Alejandro Gil, former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Economy, has become one of the most sensitive and politicized judicial processes in recent years.
After his removal in February 2024 and a criminal investigation that accuses him of serious crimes such as espionage, embezzlement, bribery, forgery of public documents, influence peddling, and money laundering, the Prosecutor's Office presented the charges to the Supreme People's Court.
In that context, the appointment of Luis Solá Vila as Gil's defender presents a paradox, as the legal expert is also deeply intertwined with the system that accuses and judges.
The sister of the former minister, from the Canary Islands, expressed her fear not only of a severe sentence, “the prosecutor's request is for life imprisonment”, but also for her brother's life. “I fear for his life. He could perfectly well wake up dead in prison,” she told CiberCuba.
Without guarantees of independence
The presence of Abel Alejandro Solá López at the forefront of the defense introduces an element of professionalism, but it also reinforces the perception of systemic continuity. His previous experience in espionage cases and his affiliation with one of the legal families most closely tied to the State complicate any expectations of real independence.
The current Constitution subordinates the actions of judges, prosecutors, and defenders to the Communist Party of Cuba, and high-impact political processes, such as that of Gil Fernández, end up being managed through the logic of control and ideological exemplarity.
Although María Victoria Gil claims to trust the technical ability of the lawyer, her own son, a criminal lawyer in Spain, warned her: "Mom, don't get your hopes up. What can Dr. Solá do in the face of a political decision?"
The answer seems to be implicit in the trajectory of the defender, being a prestigious jurist, yes, but trained and committed within the institutional framework that today seeks to punish their client.
The daughter of the former Minister of Economy, Laura María Gil González, has publicly requested that the trial be televised and open to the public, invoking constitutional rights to freedom of expression and the defense of honor.
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