Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel dismissed the Economy Minister in view of the serious crisis facing the country.

The Cuban government dismissed Alejandro Gil this Friday as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning, as part of a plan to provide oxygen to a time of crisis and a devastated economy. An official statement confirmed that Gill, 60, has been relieved “of his responsibilities”. The dismissal occurs upon the proposal of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the approval of the members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. From now on, Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, 60, the current Minister-President of the Central Bank of Cuba, will take over the post of Minister of Economy and Planning.

A graduate in Transportation Operations Engineering, Gil, who worked as a ship manager, head of port operations and in companies inside and outside the country, previously held the position of Deputy Minister of Finance and Prices and First Deputy Minister of Finance and in 2018 Ricardo Cabrissus. After his dismissal he was promoted to the post of Economy Minister.

Since then, he has been at the forefront of failed plans to fix Cuba’s economy in recent years, including the so-called “ordering task” of 2021, which sought to liberate the country from economic stagnation with the end of the dual currency. The promise was made. And the correction in prices, and the government’s admission that this was a failure, resulted in increased inflation and an exacerbation of the crisis.

Gil has also been in charge of announcing to the Cuban people almost all of their latest misfortunes: in September he appeared on national television to admit that the economy was in “a complicated situation”, and that there were shortages of basic foods such as milk. Recognized. For kids, bread, coffee or pork. He was in charge of publicly saying that the basic basket, the series of subsidized foods that the government distributes to Cuban families on a monthly basis and which is becoming increasingly scarce, “is a distortion that we have to correct. ,” and that the government barely has the foreign currency to buy these food items. He was also responsible for announcing the apparent decline of the Cuban economy in 2023, comparing the data only to the so-called crisis of the Special Period of the 1990s: an economy that, despite a projected growth of 3%, was 2%. % had shrunk. Inflation which is close to 30%.

Nevertheless, Gil did not hesitate to ask the Cuban people for patience and faith in the prospects of the revolution: “We know that life is hard,” he recently stressed. “But rest assured, that the only way is revolution and socialism.”

Despite the fact that at the end of the year the government announced a package of measures that angered the Cuban family and that included increasing gasoline prices by more than 500%, now, suddenly, it has said that it will The price increase will be delayed due to “a cyber security attack on the CIMEX marketing system”, which was caused “by a virus coming from abroad”, according to an official journalist. Among these measures taken, delayed or rejected, the Cuban executive dismissed Gil, who, according to his own sister, television presenter María Victoria Gil, was, along with Miguel, “the most hated person” by the Cuban people. “A person to be reckoned with.” Diaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero.

“He is the most hated person. In that order are Alejandro Gil, Marrero and Canales,” said María Victoria in a 2022 interview for the YouTube channel El Mundo de Darwin. On that occasion he said that his brother, who lived in England with his family, was enjoying some luxuries that were not allowed to the majority in Cuba. According to Maria Victoria, Gil is one of those who “must leave Cuba” immediately if there is a change of government on the island.

At present the former minister has not commented on his dismissal. This Friday, the Cuban government also removed Science Minister Alba Rosa Pérez Montoya and Food Industry Minister Manuel Santiago Sobrino Martínez from their posts.

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