MIAMI. – Investigated by the Police, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office and with the probability of being sentenced to years in prison, this is how the recently deposed Minister of Minister finds himself at this moment. Economy of the regime HavanaAlejandro Gil Fernández, as announced in an unusual official note signed by the president himself, Miguel Díaz Canel, which was announced on Thursday night by the website of the Granma newspaper, the official organ of the communist party on the island.
Identified as one of Díaz Canel’s closest collaborators, after having assumed the Ministry of Economy portfolio in 2018, Gil was removed from the position at the beginning of February, without any explanation being given.
According to the official message, the judicial bodies, including the Ministry of the Interior (which controls the repressive organs of the regime), “will initiate the corresponding actions to fully clarify these behaviors.” The text was read as the opening of the main news program on Cuban state television and signed personally by President Díaz-Canel.
Without mentioning specific elements, the note assured that neither the Communist Party nor the government “will ever allow the proliferation of corruption, simulation and insensitivity.”
They also notify in the official statement that “the person involved has acknowledged serious accusations and, consequently, resigned his status as a member of the Central Committee of the Party (Communist of Cuba, PCC) and as a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament). ”.
Background
The Cuban Council of State dismissed the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, hours after postponing the application of the unpopular ‘economic package’ announced at the end of December.
After Gil’s dismissal, DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS had access to the testimony of a senior official who was present at a meeting of the Council of Ministers held on January 28, about 72 hours before the regime adopted this measure against Gil and other officials. Also removed then were Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, who served for 11 years as Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, and Manuel Sobrino Martínez, current Minister of the Food Industry.
According to the testimony shared by the senior official with DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS, in the atmosphere of the meeting and the interventions made by Gil during the meeting, there was no indication of what would happen.
“Gil played a leading role in the meeting, he appeared several times and seemed calm and confident. It was a surprise that seventy-two hours later he was dismissed. “Something happened at that time that caused him to fall,” the source said. Havana.
Forecast after the news
When the news broke, which provoked immediate reactions among the Cubans on the island, unaccustomed to members of the ruling leadership being prosecuted and investigated, the same source that previously reviewed what transpired behind closed doors of the Council of Ministers meeting in January, He assured DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS that the purge process at the top of the regime could escalate, “it is not known until it reaches who.”
The worsening of the severe economic crisis and inflation suffered in Cuba, where the price of a dollar reaches the value of 320 Cuban pesos and the salary of a retiree is the equivalent of 7 dollars a month, could be one of the reasons why the ruling leadership adopts apparently drastic measures that divert attention and contribute to alleviating the growing discontent of the population.
The dismissal and prosecution of Gil is surprising due to his closeness to the ruler Díaz-Canel, who they claim proposed him to carry out the responsibility that was removed from him.
Iliana Lavastida Rodríguez
@IlianaLavastida
