assessing Cuba's politico-military affairs
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Via Cuban state media: Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez (Vice-President, Council of State and Ministers) has called energy consumption on the island, during the months of May and June, as critical with the tendency of increasing in both state and residential sectors.
Valdés also called for extreme energy conservation.
(Image: European Pressphoto Agency)
Tags: energy consumption, Ramiro Valdes, Ramiro Valdes Menendez
Army General Raúl Castro named Gustavo Rodríguez (an agronomist) as the new Minister of Agriculture to increase agricultural production in the country, reports EFE. Tonight’s announcement was made on state-run television.
Rodríguez (46) held several posts in the sugar sector and as current Vice-Minister of Agriculture.
Brigade General Ulises Rosales del Toro was the Minister of Agriculture before Rodríguez and will now oversee the Ministries of Sugar, Agriculture and Food Industry.
Tags: Gustavo Rodríguez, Minister of Agriculture, Raul Castro, Ulises Rosales del Toro
 Sierra Cruz |
 Ávila González |
Army General Raúl Castro has dismissed Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz (Vice-President, Council of Ministers and Transportation Minister) and Luis Manuel Ávila González (Sugar Minister) in an official note disseminated through Cuban state television, reports EFE.
Sierra Cruz’ dismissal was caused by “errors in the performance of his duties,” while for Ávila González it was his “deficiencies in his work”. Both will be assigned to other tasks per the note.
DG Lusson Batlle
The octogenarian Division General Antonio Enrique Lussón Batlle (80), a Raúlista and former Special Forces Chief, replaces Sierra Cruz as Vice-President of the Council of Ministers. Lussón gives an account of his life in an interview for the book Secretos de Generales published in 1997. He has a long history of incompetence and corruption. Fidel Castro, himself, dismissed him from office but has always ended up being protected by Raúl Castro. Lussón failed miserably having previously held the post as Transportation Minister in 1970.
César Ignacio Arocha (51) is the new Transportation Minister and holds rank in the armed forces.
Orlando Celso García (53) will take over the Sugar Ministry as its new minister.
Tags: Antonio Enrique Lussón, Antonio Enrique Lussón Batlle, César Ignacio Arocha, Council of Ministers Vice-President, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Luis Manuel Ávila González, Orlando Celso Garcí, Raul Castro, Sugar Minister, transportation minister
BBC correspondent Fernando Ravsberg posted in his blog Letters from Cuba (Cartas desde Cuba) the news of a corruption scandal that has rocked state-controlled Cuban Aviation which led to Civil Aviation Minister Gen. Rogelio Acevedo’s removal in early March:
Cuban airplanes [owned by the Cuban government's airline, Cubana de Aviación] sold space clandestinely to Latin American companies to transport their merchandise from one country to another, and the directors pocketed all the money.
Tags: BBC, Cartas desde Cuba, Cuban Aviation, Cuban Civil Aviation, Fernando Ravsberg, Rogelio Acevedo
Brazil's Lula da Silva (r) with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana. 25FEB2010. Image: AFP
Apparently he is, according to Newsweek, citing several Cuba analysts.
However, aren’t these the same analysts who opined that a younger generation of leaders would assume power in Cuba?
Tags: Fidel Castro, Raul Castro
Via Reuters:
A Council of Ministers circular, dated Oct. 21 and which reduced government power allocations, termed the energy situation “critical” and called for “extreme measures” through December.
“The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population,” said the order, which was seen by Reuters.
All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which encompass 90 percent of Cuba’s economic activity, were already ordered in June to reduce energy use by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity cuts.
The situation is not as dire as in the 1990s because Cuba receives 93,000 of the 150,000 barrels of oil per day that it consumes from strategic ally Venezuela on preferential terms.
Image: Venezuela Presidential Press
A delegation of high-ranking Cuban government officials met Sunday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavéz at the hall of the Council of Ministers in Miraflores Palace to discuss next month’s ALBA summit in Cuba, informs the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication and Information.
The Cuban delegation was led by Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz (Vice-President, Council of Ministers) along with Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz (Vice-President, Council of Ministers and Tourist Ministry); Salvador Pardo Guerra (Minister, Metals Industry); Yadira García (Minister, Basic Industry); Rodrigo Malmierca (Minister, International Commerce and Foreign Investment); Rogelio Sierra Díaz (Vice-Minister, Foreign Relations); Alberto Rodríguez (Vice-Minister, Information and Communications) and Rogelio Polanco Fuentes (Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela).
Tags: ALBA, Alberto Rodríguez, Cuban government officials, Hugo Chavez, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Rodrigo Malmierca, Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, Rogelio Sierra Díaz, Salvador Pardo Guerra, Venezuela, venezuelan government, Yadira García
From The Economist:
Two senior figures are dismissed after tasting
Tags: Carlos Lage, collapse of the soviet union, communist regime, economic change, fall of the soviet union, Fidel Castro
Septagenarians control Cuba's destiny: present and future. Ramiro Valdez (l), Raul Castro (c), Machado Ventura (r). Image: Getty
Proceso, a Mexican daily, published an article this week in which Ra
Tags: agricultural minister, Council of Ministers, Cuba, Cuban Communist Party, cuban leader, Government, government decisions, government responsibilities, inner circle, military men, Politburo
Raul Castro has ascended three of his government ministers – Ramiro Valdes (Communications Minister), Ulises Rosales del Toro (Agriculture Minister), and Jorge Luis Sierra (Transportation Minister) – to vice-presidents of the Council of Ministers. According to an official note published in the state media, the objective of the appointments is to make “more effective the control and coordination” of government.
Tags: agriculture minister, Council of Ministers, Cuba, Government, government ministers, Raul Castro, transportation minister
Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz (Image from Juventud Rebelde)
According to a brief note in Granma, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Cuba’s Minister Without Portfolio, has been appointed Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and will oversee International Commerce, Foreign Investments, and Economic Collaboration ministries as well as other entities within the Central Administration of State.
Cabrisas Ruiz (a septuagenarian) was part of the General Intelligence Directorate (DGI): first, as an operative in the early 60′s and then as chief of DGI
Tags: Cuban Government, Cuban intelligence, Cuban intelligence operatives, Directorate of Intelligence (DI), Government, Intelligence
Cuban state media reports: Jose Ram
Tags: cuban delegation, Fernando Lugo, Paraguay
La Razon reports on the creation of a super-ministry charged with overseeing the production of food (a vital national security issue for Cuba):
While rumors of a next government crisis runs insistently throughout Havana, the name of Ulises Rosales del Toro is beginning to be heard with greater impetus among diplomats and journalists. Rosales del Toro is the current Minister of Sugar, a two star general, 66 years-old with a brilliant service record for the regime.
According to unofficial sources, it seems Rosales del Toro will play a vital role in the restructuring of the Cuban government once Raul Castro sends the plan to parliament (National Assembly) before the end of the year.
“I know what you know,” responded Vice-Minister of Sugar Juan Godefroy to a query made by a US news agency interested in the role of that ministry in the unification of four ministerial posts that are linked to the production of food in the country.
Expected unification
Even though there is speculation without official confirmation point to Rosales del Toro, former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as the center of the expected unification or reorganization of the Ministries of Agriculture, Sugar, Food and Fishery.
The restructuring of the departments linked to the production of food which is a national security issue in Cuba began with sharing by municipalities of “many decisions that have been up to now made centrally in the Ministry of Agriculture,” opined Cuban economists who asked to remain anonymous.
“Unification of decision making” in the sector will be reached through that path but they declined to advance the names of who will head the new structure.
[H/T: La Nueva Cuba.]
[Photo: BBC.]
Tags: cuban economists, Cuban Government, Government, ministry of agriculture, national security issue, Raul Castro, Sugar, Ulises Rosales
From the Chilean daily El Mercurio:
“In Cuba there exists a potential for protest against the military regime,” assured Stefan Rinke, director of the Latin American Institute at the Free University of Berlin, in an interview published in the German daily Mrkische Oderzeitung.
Rinke acknowledged that the future of Cuba behind Ra
Political structure
May 6th 2008
From the Economist Intelligence Unit
Source: Country Report
Official name
Republic of Cuba
Form of government
Centralised political system, with close identification between the PCC and the state
Head of state
The president, Raul Castro, took over from his brother, Fidel, on February 24th 2008
The executive
The Council of Ministers is the highest executive body; its Executive Committee is composed of the president, the first vice-president and the vice-presidents of the Council of Ministers
National legislature
National Assembly of People’s Power; 614 members elected by direct ballot; the Assembly meets twice a year, and extraordinary sessions can be called
Legal system
A People’s Supreme Court oversees a system of regional tribunals; the Supreme Court is accountable to the National Assembly
National elections
Provincial and national assemblies: last elections January 20th 2008; next elections due in January 2012. Municipal elections: last held October 2007; next due in April 2010
National government
The organs of the state and the PCC are closely entwined, and power devolves principally from the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers
Main political organisation
The Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) is the only legal political party
President of the councils of state & ministers: Raul Castro Ruz
First vice-president: Jose Ramon Machado Ventura
Vice-president: Carlos Lage Davila
President of the National Assembly: Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada
Key ministers
Agriculture: Maria del Carmen Perez
Armed forces: General Julio Casas Regueiro
Audit & control: Gladys Maria Bejerano Portela
Basic industry: Yadira Garcia Vera
Communications & informatics: Ramiro Valdes Menendez
Culture: Abel Prieto Jimenez
Economy & planning: Jose Luis Rodriguez Garcia
Education: Ana Elsa Velazquez
Finance & prices: Georgina Barreiro Fajardo
Foreign investment & economic co-operation: Marta Lomas Morales
Foreign relations: Felipe Perez Roque
Foreign trade: Raul de la Nuez Ramirez
Government: Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz
Justice: Maria Esther Reus Gonzalez
Labour & social security: Alfredo Morales Cartaya
Light industry: Estela Dominguez Ariosa
Public health: Jose Ramon Balaguer
Science, technology & the environment: Fernando Gonzalez Bermudez
Sugar: Ulises Rosales del Toro
Tourism: Manuel Marrero Cruz
Transport: Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz
Central Bank president
Francisco Soberon Valdes
Colonel Alex Crowther (Research Professor of National Security Studies in the Strategic Studies Institue of the US Army War College) has penned an editorial on Cuba, Raul and the military. He is also the author of Security Requirements for Post-Transition Cuba.
As Louis XV allegedly said, “Apres moi, le deluge.” Certainly people have thought that Cuba after Fidel would be the same. How would a Cuban state that revolves around him survive his departure? How would a government where no decision is too small for his attention function? How would the generations who have known no one other than the “Maximo Lider” handle the change? Luckily for the Cuban government, the answer is
Tags: Carlos Lage, Council of Ministers, Council of State, Cuban Communist Party, FAR, Fidel Castro, MINFAR, MININT, Ministry of the Interior, National Assembly, Raul Castro, Revolutionary Armed Forces
Grave crisis over liquidity
11 January 2010 at 1126 in Commentary, Council of Ministers, Economy, Government, Market by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d
EcoMin Marino Murillo (Image: cuba.cu)
Cuban economic minister Marino Murillo announced before a meeting of the National Association of Cuban Economists (Asociación Nacional de Economistas de Cuba) that the lack of liquidity in currencies is an urgent problem for the government, reported Cuban state media.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Asociación Nacional de Economistas de Cuba, Cuban economic minister, foreign exchange, Marino Murillo, National Association of Cuban Economists