In 2014, Cuban-Americans Enrique Anicio Artiles Mata and Elvis Artiles Martin (father and son) were arrested and charged with drug trafficking in the United States. In Cuba, where they traveled frequently, they had family and friendship ties to five citizens who a year later were prosecuted for money laundering and forgery of documents, along with another resident in the United States.
At that trial, held in the Provincial Court of Cienfuegos, the name of Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle, one of the sons of the late dictator Fidel Castro, came up several times, as can be seen in the recording of the proceedings, of which DIARIO DE CUBA reveals exclusive images.
The charges against the citizens residing in Cuba, Esbel Morejón Sánchez, Fausto Lázaro López Soler del Castillo, Elbis Blanco Mata, Jorge Luis Araujo López and Odalis Sabina Martín Cuéllar were based on their roles in the purchase of a house and a car for Artiles Mata and Artiles Martin, and administering their money in Cuba.
Maikel Omar Morejón Mata, who also resided in the US and refused to testify at the trial, was accused of counting and packing money made by Artiles Mata and Artiles Martin through drug trafficking.
The prosecution accused the Cuban residents of having known about, or at least suspected, that the money for the purchase of the house, the car and other transactions, had not been obtained legally.
Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle's name surfaces
In response to these accusations, the defendants argued that it never occurred to them that Artiles Martin or Artiles Mata were involved in illegal activities because Enrique Anicio Artiles Mata rubbed shoulders with senior officials at the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and the Government, and even with Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle.
In his statement defendant Esbel Morejón Sánchez said that, through Artiles Mata, during his trips to Cuba he had met "officials, even high-ranking ones, both at the MININT (Ministry of the Interior), and the FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces)."
"I met Alejandro Castro (Soto) del Valle, a son of the (former) commander in chief, Fidel Castro. He even visited my house on one occasion and sold Enrique a Toyota 4x4 (...) an exclusive olive green model. Enrique and he got along really well," Morejón Sánchez stressed at the trial.
Far from showing interest in Alejandro Castro (another citizen residing in Cuba and linked to the alleged drug trafficker, a crime for which the Cuban authorities claim to have "zero tolerance"), the judge who presided over the trial instructed Morejón Sánchez to stick to the facts.
In a dissuasive maneuver, the magistrate suggested that it made no sense to talk about third parties who "have not appeared here today, in any capacity," as such discussions would amount to a mere distraction.
The defendant, however, considered it "necessary" to emphasize that Castro Soto del Valle and Artiles Mata got along very well ("they even visited each other, Enrique gave him gifts") and that one night "Alejandro spent the night at Enrique's house."
Precisely due to Enrique's relationships "with these types of people, good people," he said he never could have imagined that he was involved "in any illicit business, much less drug trafficking."
Defendant López Soler del Castillo also cited "the relations" that both Artiles Mata and his son had with senior Cuban officials as a reason leading them not to suspect that they were carrying out any illegal activity with the money, allegedly stemming from operations carried out in the United States.
Elbis Blanco Mata confirmed that "Enrique dealt with high-ranking people, with Fidel's son, with I don't know what general" and with "prominent revolutionaries" and "agents at the MININT."
The judge, once again, just as she had done in response to similar statements by Morejón Sánchez, told Blanco Mata that his testimony should address only facts to be judged by the Court.
That is, despite the fact that a second defendant mentioned the relationships between an alleged drug trafficker and Castro Soto del Valle, the judge showed no intention of summoning the latter to testify at the trial, even as a witness.
The alleged drug trafficker seemed to be a State Security agent
When it came his turn to testify, the ultimately-convicted Jorge Luis Araujo López stated that, far from perceiving indications that Artiles Mata may have illicit sources of income, he came to suspect that he was a Cuban State Security agent.
His suspicions were based on the fact that on December 26, 2013, upon arriving at the Cienfuegos Airport from Miami, "Enrique was received by two jeeps, which I thought were from the Ministry [of the Interior], because they had an antenna, a radio system, (...) and high-level people. One of those people was Alejandro Castro, the son of the Commander in Chief."
"He was received by those people, and got in with them, and then I see Enrique also in that jeep, which had this radio system, an antenna (...) at the wheel, driving it."
These statements sparked expressions of astonishment in the courtroom, which the judge silenced by threatening to expel those present.
"The people in the gallery cannot hold conversations. This is the second time they've murmured certain things that can be heard from here. The next time I have to reprimand these people who are murmuring about what is being discussed in the oral proceedings we are going to expel them all and continue only with the defendants and the parties," threatened the judge of the Provincial Court of Cienfuegos.
No questions for Fidel's son
At the proceedings, neither the judge of the Court of Cienfuegos, nor the prosecutors, nor the defense lawyers referred to the repeated mentions of Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle. He was not called to testify about his links to two defendants accused of drug trafficking in the United States, nor was he questioned about why he never imagined that the money with which Artiles Mata gave him gifts proceeded from an illicit activity.
Fidel Castro's son did not appear at the trial held in Cienfuegos, not even as a witness.
The defendants in Cuba were found guilty and received sentences ranging from three to nine years in prison.
Artiles Mata and Artiles Martin were tried and convicted in Cuba on the same charges, in absentia, after being declared rebels while being prosecuted in the United States, according to a report by the Cuban prosecution.
DIARIO DE CUBA has not been able to verify whether they were ultimately convicted of drug trafficking in that country.
What there is no doubt about, after seeing the images revealed by DIARIO DE CUBA in this exclusive, is the untouchability of Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle and the Castroist elite. At this trial indications emerged that Fidel Castro's son and MININT officials (whose identities neither the judge, nor the prosecutors, nor the defense lawyers showed interest in) were potentially involved in crimes that could include money laundering and drug trafficking, which is not tolerated in Cuba, according to the regime's propaganda.
By ignoring these indications, the judge, the prosecutors and even the lawyers of the accused, not only guaranteed the impunity of the alleged criminals, but also violated laws in force in Cuba, as DIARIO DE CUBA will show in a future article.