The second trial against the ousted former minister Alejandro Gil has made several headlines, one of which is: the State could confiscate the house where his family lives.
His sister María Victoria Gil in an interview with journalist Mario J. Pentón. stated this Saturday that "it has been managed" in the trial that has been ongoing since November 26.
It is about a house in Miramar that was given to him in exchange for the family home he had inherited from his family.
“This house was given to my brother through a state exchange,” asserted María Victoria, who questioned the legitimacy of the possible seizure, considering it is not a property acquired through illegal activity.
"I had donated the family house, which belonged to my brother and me, to my niece, a house that we both inherited from our parents," he affirmed.
"I myself, through the Central Committee, because my brother didn't dare to, fought with letters and more letters so that my brother could be given decent housing and to arrange a state swap for him. It was me who made it happen," she stated.
The house they gave him, a two-story building that he shares with a deputy minister, was a business that had been destroyed and was rebuilt, Gil's sister stated.
"The upper part, very modest, was given to my brother, but to get that house they had to give up the house I gave him," he complained.
"It is not a house obtained through ill means (...) They cannot take the house away from him," he argued.
However, he admitted that “in a dictatorship, that's Cuba, they will take it away,” because “in dictatorships, there are no rights.”
Díaz-Canel as a witness
María Victoria further stated that the Cuban leaderMiguel Díaz-Canel appeared as a prosecution witness in the trial for economic crimes against his brother, whom he had presented for years as his trusted man, mentored academically and publicly praised even after his dismissal.
The process, which is taking place under strict secrecy and behind closed doors, is the second against the former minister: the first was for espionage, for which the Prosecutor's Office requested a life sentence and that was indeed announced on the National News on Cuban Television.
On this occasion, however, not a single official statement has informed the public about the trial for corruption, money laundering, influence peddling, and other economic crimes, which has outraged the accused's family.
María Victoria, who resides in Spain, affirmed that she has direct sources within the process and confirmed that the trial lasted four days and has concluded for sentencing, although under “absolute secrecy.”
"The population has not even received information through the national television news... It is a disrespect towards the people of Cuba," he denounced, recalling that in Spain, even the trials against high-ranking state officials are made public.
One of the most controversial points revealed by María Victoria is the presence of Díaz-Canel as a witness for the prosecution.
“The president of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel, has appeared in the trial against my brother as a prosecution witness. A prosecution witness is a witness for the accusation,” he emphasized.
The lawyer recalled that the relationship between the two was very close: Díaz-Canel was the advisor for Alejandro Gil's Economics thesis.
On February 2, 2024, a day after his dismissal, he publicly congratulated him for his "excellent work."
On February 6, on his birthday, he congratulated him again and even invited him to continue working for the revolution.
“They were one, they were one. My sister-in-law used to say, ‘they adore each other, they can’t live without one another’. And now, just to clean up his severely damaged image both nationally and internationally, he is willing to testify against my brother as a prosecution witness in a corruption trial. I find it shameful,” María Victoria told Pentón, describing Díaz-Canel’s actions as a personal and political betrayal.
The sister of the former minister also alleged direct pressure on the family to maintain silence.
He reported that his nephews and sister-in-law were able to enter the room "after signing a document of confidentiality and absolute secrecy" and that they have asked him not to give interviews.
"My niece begged me, 'Aunt, please, don't talk anymore, because instead of helping, it harms my father,'" she recounted.
Despite that request, María Victoria decided to speak publicly, claiming that “the people of Cuba have the right” to know the details of a high-level corruption case.
"I speak because I have the truth in my hands and because it seems incredible to me that the people are being denied the right to know what has happened to one of the country's most important ministers," he stated.
The lawyer acknowledged that her brother has admitted to several of the economic crimes he is accused of. "I know that my brother committed economic crimes… Power corrupts, and when you are in a corrupt circle, the environment gradually leads you without you realizing it," she said, while emphasizing that no minister comes out "clean" from a system she described as fundamentally corrupt.
A "scapegoat"
Maria Victoria insisted that Gil is being used as a “scapegoat.”
"It is impossible for all this corruption to have occurred and only Gil to be held accountable… The important figures have vanished along the way and only small players remain. Here, the only one paying for it all is Alejandro Miguel Gil Fernández,” he denounced.
He announced that he will take the case "to the fullest extent," even to the International Court of Justice, and assured that his goal is that, if economic crimes are proven, "everyone who needs to fall will fall," including other senior officials who may have participated or turned a blind eye.
María Victoria also questioned the abandonment by the elite that surrounded the former minister during his time in power.
He mentioned the names of public figures who frequented his house and benefited from their closeness to power, and who today, he claims, have vanished.
“At what point in these hard years did they go to visit my brother in prison, or ask my family if he is well?” he wondered, asserting that “those who once honored him and asked him for favors are no longer here.”
While the regime keeps the trial shrouded in opacity, the only news that emerges comes through independent press and from María Victoria herself, who has chosen to confront the imposed silence and denounce what she believes is a political operation to protect the image of the leadership, headed by Díaz-Canel, at the expense of one of his closest associates.
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