Former Cuban Economy Minister Sentenced to Life in Prison After “Treason Against the Homeland”

 Havana.- Former Cuban Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil, who less than two years ago was a close collaborator of the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and in charge of implementing the island’s major monetary reform, was sentenced to life in prison for a dozen crimes, including espionage.

The sentence against Gil, announced this Monday by a note released by the Supreme People’s Court of Cuba, puts an end to a chapter that began in February 2024, with his sudden dismissal after having been at the head of the Ministry of Economy and Planning since the first term of Díaz-Canel, in 2018.

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The also former deputy prime minister is the highest-ranking official removed for corruption on the island in decades. His indictment came as a surprise. The Cuban president sent him a “thank you hug” on social media hours after his dismissal. A month later, Díaz-Canel himself reported that Gil was under investigation for “serious errors” and stated that “neither the Party (Communist Party of Cuba, PCC, the only legal one) nor the Government” would allow “the proliferation of corruption, simulation and insensitivity.” In its note this Monday, the court stated that the former minister was found guilty of espionage; acts to the detriment of economic activity or contracting; bribery and removal and damage of documents or other objects, documents or other objects in official custody and violation of official seals and infringement of the rules for the protection of classified documents. The former member of the PCC Central Committee was tried for these crimes in a first trial held behind closed doors in Havana between November 11 and 13. In addition, Gil was tried in a second trial, held between November 26 and 29, for bribery to commit forgery of public documents, influence peddling and tax evasion, all three on an ongoing basis. For this cause he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the court indicated. Both sentences can be appealed within ten days.

“Treason”

In their note, the judges stated that the former official “deceived the country’s leadership and the people they represented, thereby causing damage to the economy” and “failed to comply with work processes regarding the classified official information they handled, removed it, damaged it, and ultimately made it available to the enemy’s services”. The Supreme People’s Court considered that these “highly damaging behaviors” make the investigated person deserving of a “severe criminal response” by establishing that “treason against the Homeland is the most serious of crimes and whoever commits it is subject to the most severe sanctions.” Before his fall from grace, Gil acted on the island as one of the members of the Cabinet with the greatest media exposure. He was also in charge of implementing the major reform of 2021 (designed by others since 2010), which sought to end the use of a dual currency in Cuba. The controversial Tarea Ordenamiento turned out to be a failure that sank the value of the peso and opened the doors to dollarization on the island. He was also in charge of applying the first adjustment measures to try to stabilize the economy. Among them, the controversial rise in fuel prices stood out, with increases of up to 400%.