14ymedio, Havana, 14 March 2024 — “My brother has been detained along with his wife. They have no cell phones; there is no way to communicate with them.” The former television presenter María Victoria Gil thus summarized the situation of her sister-in-law, Gina María González, and her brother Alejandro Gil Fernández, former Minister of Economy of Cuba, dismissed at the end of February and investigated for alleged errors committed in the exercise of his office.
Victoria Gil, who recently traveled to Havana, sent an audio to the YouTube channel El mundo de Darwin (Darwin’s World, emitted from Canada), after returning to Tenerife, Spain. Vicky, as she is known on the Island, said that she always travels to Cuba in March, every two years, so as not to lose her property, and that she bought the ticket well in advance to make it cheaper. This would explain the coincidence that she arrived in the country shortly after the official announcement of her brother’s fall from grace.
“My niece (Laura María Gil González) is at home but under house arrest, also without a cell phone. I contacted my nephew, my brother’s son,” and the young man also did not have information about the whereabouts of his father Alejandro Gil and his mother Gina María González: “I don’t know anything about them; I don’t know anything about my aunt. I’m very worried, but what can I do?”
“My niece is at home but under house arrest, also without a mobile phone. I communicated with my nephew, my brother’s son”
Despite sending the audio to Darwin’s World, Vicky said on Thursday on her Facebook profile that she had not given “any statement to digital media,” nor did her son, Daniel Alejandro Trujillo Gil.
“Someone has stolen my identity on TikTok and given statements to the prominent journalist Mario Pentón (Martí Noticias) from my account, posing as my son,” she clarified after indicating that she received “a screenshot of the message” that, allegedly, her son sent to Pentón.
She acknowledges that the message contained “no lies or insults, not at all; it is information in the public domain, but I reiterate that it was not provided by my son. I don’t know the intention of the person who did it, but it doesn’t contain any falsehood,” she insisted.
These statements come to light after Pentón published last Tuesday in Martí Noticias that Gina María González was also detained, and he cited as a source the nephew of the former minister, Daniel Alejandro Trujillo Gil.
“I don’t know the intention of the person who did it, because, in addition, it does not contain any falsehood”
On the other hand, the former presenterin Cuban Television denied have been pressured by State Security during her stay on the Island. Also on Facebook, this Tuesday she published a post in which she thanked the Government for not having “bothered” her while she was in Havana, and she was grateful to the broadcasters of Cuban television for their attitude towards her “at such a difficult time.”
Vicky Gil was filmed several times on the Island, and in one of them she is singing. “I don’t know how I managed to sing; I ignored the way some notes came out of my throat because of so much emotion,” she said on Facebook. “My conscience is clear. I love my homeland and adore my people. I am incapable of profiting from the sacrifice of my fellow human beings. I love them immeasurably and will always be on the side of truth, honesty and justice.”
She did not offer details of the criminal proceeding against her brother that was announced in a brief official note last week. The statement, signed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, said that after a “rigorous investigation” and “taking into account the level of verification of the facts,” the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party and the Council of State “approved that the competent bodies of the Ministry of the Interior initiate the corresponding actions for the total clarification of these behaviors.”
The former presenter of Cuban Television denied having been subjected to pressure from the Cuban State Security during her stay on the Island
Alejandro Gil graduated as an engineer in Maritime Transport from the Technological University of Havana, a profession that is little related to the position of Minister of Economy that he held for almost four years. Until his dismissal, he was one of the key men of the regime and had survived several crises, including the debacle after the so-called Ordering Task.*
A regular guest of State TV’s Round Table program, he was a great advocate for the economic adjustment measures that the Cubans baptized as the “paquetazo” [package] which included an increase in the price of fuel and electricity, implemented at the beginning of this month, and new currency exchange rates, still to be applied. His sister Vicky then defined him as the person “most hated” by the people, along with Díaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero.
Gil’s wife, Gina González García, was manager of the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba and, previously, had worked as commercial manager of BisMusic, an official record company. Their daughter, Laura María Gil González, was employed in the Imports Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and currently worked in the Caudal Group, which depends on the State and manages insurance and financial services.
*Translator’s note: The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that included eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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