Via Inside Cable News comes this timely bit of news: Fidel Castro's exiled daughter Alina Fernandez has been hired by CNN as a contributor. Even more interesting? That she's Fidel's exiled daughter seems to be about the only reason CNN gave her a job. From the memo:

Alina Fernandez, exiled daughter of Cuban President Fidel Castro and someone critical of his policies, has joined CNN as a network contributor, it was announced today by Susan Bunda, senior vice president for news of CNN/U.S. Fernandez, who fled Cuba in 1993, will provide analysis and commentary from Miami.

The rest of things, after the jump.

Alina Fernandez, exiled daughter of Cuban President Fidel Castro and someone critical of his policies, has joined CNN as a network contributor, it was announced today by Susan Bunda, senior vice president for news of CNN/U.S. Fernandez, who fled Cuba in 1993, will provide analysis and commentary from Miami.

“Few people are as connected and as informed about issues concerning Cuba and Fidel Castro as Alina,” Bunda said. “With her frequent lectures and popular radio program, she truly has her finger on the pulse of Cuban-American politics, not only in Miami but across the country.”

“At this critical point in history, as a Cuban it’s important for me to draw the world’s attention to the situation inside Cuba,” Fernandez said. “CNN is a global network, which can reach the largest population available.”

CNN opened a bureau in Havana in 1997, becoming the first U.S.-based news organization with a full-time presence in Cuba since Castro kicked out the Associated Press in 1969. The network has leveraged its position as the only U.S. broadcast news organization with a full-time bureau in the country to provide comprehensive coverage of Castro’s recent surgery.

Born in 1956 before the revolution that put her father into power, Fernandez writes about growing up in Cuba in her book Castro’s Daughter: An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba, recalling how memories of Mickey Mouse were replaced with televised images of executions. As an adult, she fled to Spain with her daughter and then moved to Miami. Today, she hosts Simplemente Alina, a daily radio program on Cuban and Cuban-American issues.

Castro’s daughter joins CNN as a contributor… [ICN]