María Victoria Gil, sister of the former Cuban Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernández, denounced this Thursday the unequal treatment that, in her opinion, her brother's family has received compared to other figures in the regime who have also faced legal proceedings, fallen from grace, and even been executed, whose properties in Miramar were never confiscated.
The complaint comes a day after the regime evicted Alejandro Gil's wife, daughter, and granddaughter from the home they occupied in the upscale area of Playa, as a consequence of the additional sanctions from his life sentence.
In an interview with journalist Tania Costa, María Victoria Gil recounted that two of her Spanish friends—Jaime Ordovás, a commander with Iberia, and Pedro Valero de la Parra, owner of a construction company—were staying in Cuba in mansions in Miramar belonging to Diocles Torralba and the family of Tony de la Guardia.
According to the description, Torralba's property was "a mansion in Miramar with cabins, a huge pool, little cabins around," which his ex-wife—an old broadcasting partner of María Victoria Gil—would rent to foreign visitors. The adjacent house, belonging to Tony de la Guardia's family, operated under the same conditions.
"Why weren't the properties confiscated from Diocles Torralba and Tony de la Guardia?" asked María Victoria Gil, highlighting the contradiction with what happened to her brother.
The interviewee emphasized that Alejandro Gil's residence in Miramar was, on the contrary, "a modest three-bedroom house on the upper floor, with no luxury," and that even so, the eviction was carried out "with guards surrounding it, as if he were the greatest criminal in the world."
For María Victoria, the disproportion of the operation has no legal explanation: "This is an expiation. Alejandro Gil has discovered something, something about the great corruption of power in Cuba, which makes him an extremely dangerous person."
And he added: "A person who has to serve as an example and embody a situation that sets an example."
The comparison with Torralba and De la Guardia holds considerable historical weight. Both were convicted in 1989 in the context of Cause No. 1, the process that culminated in the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa and Tony de la Guardia himself. Diocles Torralba, former Minister of Transport and father-in-law of De la Guardia, was sentenced to 20 years but was released after 10, without his properties being confiscated.
Alejandro Gil, on the other hand, was sentenced on December 8, 2025 to life in prison for espionage and an additional 20 years for bribery, influence peddling, tax evasion, and document forgery. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence on January 24, 2026, which triggered the confiscation of assets and subsequent eviction.
Regarding her own role as an intermediary in the art market, María Victoria Gil clarified that she has never been a trafficker. "I would take those interested in buying art to the homes, and through the galleries, we would legally take the works out of the country. And I’m not a saint; I earned a 10% commission, and with that, I fed my son."
This is not the first time that María Victoria Gil publicly defends her brother since his arrest in March 2024. Last November, she stated that Alejandro Gil "does not have the character to be a spy" and that she herself would have "more character to be one" than he does.
From prison, according to his sister, Alejandro Gil remains hopeful that justice will be served and that he will one day be able to share "the whole truth" about what he discovered in the upper echelons of Cuban power.
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