Raul Castro names new ministers

By Weekly Archive On Nov 26, 2008

Raul
Castro names new ministers

A
service by the Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau

Ulises Rosales del Toro, who until recently headed the Sugar Industry Ministry (MINAZ), was changed to the post of Minister of Agriculture (MINAGRI). Luis Manuel Ávila, current MINAZ Vice Minister, an agronomical engineer that came up through the ranks, was named to replace Rosales.

María del Carmen Pérez, who was acting minister of Agriculture, was "freed from her post."

The information that was read on Cuban TV’s main nightly news program said that the changes decided by the Council of State had been at the proposal of the Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo.

The note also added that work not related to sugar cane that MINAZ has been performing will be transferred to MINAGRI in a period of six months.

When at the beginning of the 21st century the sugar sector was submitted to a drastic reduction of the number of functioning sugar mills, thousands of acres previously planted with sugar cane were dedicated to food crops under MINAZ’s jurisdiction. The present transfer puts an end to a senseless duality: MINAZ will tend to sugar, MINAGRI to the rest of agribusiness.

Minister Rosales is a member of the Politburo and the Council of State. Before being named to head the Sugar Ministry, he was chief of staff of the Armed Forces with the rank of Division General. Rosales was one of the first Cuban officers decorated with the medal Hero of the Republic of Cuba.

Regarding María del Carmen Pérez, the Council of State commended her for her work at MINAGRI.

With these changes, after ones in Education, Communications and Computing, and Collaboration and Foreign Investments, President Raúl Castro’s government continues his previously announced substitution process in the Cabinet.

A Socialist model

In a reflection titled "Total Transparency" published November 25, Fidel Castro says that "Venezuela could become a model of Socialist development given the resources that transnational corporations extracted from its wealthy nature and from the sweat of its manual and intellectual workers. (…) No foreign power will determine its future."

In his article, Fidel describes the recent elections held in Venezuela as "a great qualitative step for the Bolivarian revolutionary process in many aspects that can be measured," adding that in those elections there was "total transparency."

Increase in births

According to the Office of National Statistics (ONE), during the first nine months of 2008, Cuba increased the number of births by 8.8% in comparison to the same period in 2007.
The ONE report also says that the increasing curve could continue until June 2009.

Cuba could becomes the oldest country in Latin American in the next ten years due to its low birth rate, influenced by, among other factors, the use of contraceptives, the housing deficit, the massive incorporation of women to the workforce and emigration.

From Santiago de Chile to Havana

Chilean media, citing government sources, report that President Michelle Bachelet will visit Cuba in February 2009. The visit will be official and will be the first by a Chilean president since Salvador Allende visited Cuba in December 1972.

First Cuban Blessed

José Olallo Valdés, a member of the St. John of God religious order, will be the first Cuban to have the title of "Blessed", the first rung in the long ladder to canonization.

According to the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, the beatification will take place at the eastern city of Camagüey, on November 29, and will be headed by Cardinal José Saraiva, Prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints.

Cuban TV’s Educational Channel 2 will broadcast a tape of the beatification ceremony on Saturday night.

Brother Olallo, born in 1820, dedicated his religious life to assisting the sick, particularly during the cholera epidemic that ravaged the city of Camagüey in mid 19th century.