

On Monday, Raúl Castro, the President of Cuba, announced several changes of ministers in his cabinet. This is the first major reshuffle since Raúl took over as President after his brother Fidel Castro. A total of twelve ministers were replaced.
One of the highest profile changes was Carlos Lage Dávila, the executive secretary of the Council of Ministers, who was replaced by General José Amado Ricardo Guerra. According to senior research associate at the University of Miami, José Azel, Lage was responsible for rescuing the Cuban economy from the downturn that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was not announced whether Lage will continue to serve in his other position as the vice president of the Council of State of Cuba.
"It looks like Raúl putting some of his own people in," said Wayne Smith, who heads the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy. Smith added that this "is the biggest shake-up that I've seen in a very long time ... for the last 30 or 40 years."
"This is one more sign that Raúl Castro is consolidating his power," José Azel said. "He's putting his people in there."
"It is a new direction, we're just not clear what direction Castro is planning — a return to communist orthodoxy or pragmatism? However, Castro does seem to be trying to put in position people closer to him than to his brother, Fidel," said Al Jazeera's Latin America editor, Lucia Newman.
Among other ministers replaced were foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque, finance minister Georgina Barreiro Fajardo, labor minister Alfredo Morales Cartaya, and economy minister Jose Luis Rodriguez.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!
Share this: 






This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Raúl Castro shakes up cabinet in Cuba