More changes in structure of Cuban government

Pardo Cruz to head industries; new ministry is created

By Progreso Semanal staff

Brig. Gen. Salvador Pardo Cruz was appointed Minister of Industries, according to an Official Note published Friday 30 November in the daily Granma. The appointment was made by the Council of State, at the suggestion of its president, Raúl Castro Ruz.

In addition, the official agency Prensa Latin on Friday announced the extinction of the Ministry of Basic Industry and the creation of the Ministry of Energy and Mines “as part of the changes in the country’s economic policy.”

Pardo Cruz served as Minister of the Iron and Steel Industry, a ministry that – along with the ministries of Light Industry and Chemical Industry – was incorporated in March of this year to the Ministry of Industries, the organization that directs the nation’s industrial policy.

As explained by Granma, “this decision is inserted into the Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and Revolution, which aim to separate the state functions from the entrepreneurial ones, provide a more rational government structure, and achieve a better distribution of the functions developed by the organizations of the State’s Central Administration.”

According to data already published by the Cuban government, Pardo Cruz is a radio-technical engineer, member of the Communist Party, and a brigadier general in the Revolutionary Armed Forces with a rising trajectory over more than 45 years of exemplary service, having held various responsibilities in combat units of the Antiaircraft Missile Troops.

He has had 20 years’ experience at the helm of companies in the Military Industry Union, in which he served as Coordinator General and, beginning in 1998, as Director General. On the 20th of this month (December) he will mark his 65th birthday.