MIAMI — In a rare public display in Cuba, Laura Gil took to Facebook on Wednesday to reiterate her request to the Cuban government that her father’s trial in Havana be done publicly.

Gil’s father, Alejandro Miguel Gil Fernández, went from being Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s right-hand man to facing criminal charges that could result in life in prison or the death penalty.

“Someone has directly and bluntly called me a ‘TRAITOR.’ It is dishonorable and reprehensible to insult a daughter in such a way for demonstrating unconditional love for her father,” Gil wrote in Spanish.

Gil Fernández was born in Havana on Feb. 6, 1964, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in business, according to a government biography.

Gil Fernández was promoted to minister at the Ministry of Economy and Planning on July 4, 2018. About five years later, Gil delivered a speech at the United Nations.

“As part of the updating of our economic and social model, a series of transformations and measures have been incorporated ... These include: strengthening the macroeconomic stabilization program ... transformation of socialist state-owned enterprises ... and incentives for foreign investment,” Gil Fernández said in Spanish.

For years, Gil Fernández used X and Facebook to regularly pledge his loyalty to Castro’s revolution and to Díaz-Canel, who went on to announce Gil Fernández’s dismissal on Feb. 2, 2024.

On March 7, 2024, Cuban officials announced Gil Fernández was under a criminal investigation, and he had resigned from his position as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and as a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

On Oct. 31, Cuba’s Attorney General’s Office announced overseeing a criminal investigation that had been conducted by the interior ministry and filed charges against Gil Fernández for “espionage, acts detrimental to economic activity or contracting, embezzlement, bribery, falsification of public documents, tax evasion, influence peddling, money laundering, violation of regulations protecting classified documents, and theft and damage of documents or other objects in official custody.”

His daughter, who has asked for specifics about the charges, took to Facebook on Nov. 1 and wrote in Spanish that her father remained “steadfast” in his defense.

“I trust that the Cuban people will participate in this trial,” Gil wrote, also adding, “The truth will prevail!”

Related link: Cuban prosecutor’s announcement

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