14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 20 March 2024 — María Victoria Gil Fernández spoke publicly again about her brother, the former Minister of Economy. In a statement this Monday to Canary Islands television in Spain, where she resides, she said that Alejandro Gil has not been arrested: “My brother is incommunicado.” She also blamed Raúl Castro for the so-called Ordering Task,* which plunged the country “into absolute misery.”
In conversation with 14ymedio, this Tuesday, the former presenter of Televisión Cubana, who was in Havana between March 3 and 10, just when the “investigation” that the regime undertook against her brother was announced, corroborates everything she said about the former deputy and right-hand man of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
María Victoria Gil Fernández: “He is not detained as such; he is incommunicado somewhere, maybe in Villa Marista, if it is a detention house of the Ministry of the Interior. From the legal point of view, detention means he is in prison, and he has not been charged with a crime. I couldn’t talk to him, I couldn’t contact him, because he is totally incommunicado.”
14ymedio: But he isn’t at home, neither he nor his wife?
A: No, no, no. Neither of them. Laura María Gil González is in the house, with her husband, Álvaro Iglesias, and my grandniece, who I wanted to meet, who is a year and a half old. But I understand that my niece is working [in the Caudal group, which is charged with the custody and transfer of securities and belongs to the Ministry of Finance]. She goes to work and everything, but she doesn’t have a cell phone.
Until the Prosecutor’s Office charges him with a crime, one cannot say that he is corrupt. That’s why I said that I will file a complaint against the Con Filo television program, because the presumption of innocence is mandatory
Q: He is not detained, but if he is somewhere similar to Villa Marista, we know what that means.
A: I imagine that given my brother’s former position, he would not be in Villa Marista. In Cuba there are some special state security houses, very nice houses, in Miramar and in Nuevo Vedado, where high-level, “high-ranking” people are taken, who are being investigated. It was the case of Carlos Lage and many others. They have all the luxuries and comfort; they are not given bad treatment either, far from it. He must be in one of those houses; I don’t know where.
Q: Who told you that he was incomunicado?
A: My nephew, who is not involved, Alejandro Arnaldo Gil González. He has always been apart from the whole family. He is a very quiet person, very reserved. He is a computer engineer, a professor, and he lives at his wife’s house in Playa. I communicate with my nephew every day. He tells me: “Auntie, this is going to happen, I’m sure.” He must really be suffering, because you can imagine a boy with his personality, his father being accused, as they say, of corruption, which is a term that has been used even
