Cuba

Raul replaces Fidel’s cabinet

Article published on the 2009-03-03 Latest update 2009-03-03 16:49 TU

Raul Castro with Felipe Perez Roque.
(Photo: Reuters)

A year after taking over from his brother Fidel, Cuban President Raul Castro made his first major changes to Cuba’s government moving allies into major cabinet posts.

Citing the need for greater efficiency, Raul moved people in and out of about 10 cabinet positions, including some major posts such as foreign minister and cabinet chief.

foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque was fired and cabinet chief Carlos Lage was moved, pushing two long-time lieutenants in the previous administration out of the limelight.

“It looks like Raul is putting his own people in,” said Latin American expert Colin Harding.

“Perez Roque was widely tipped as a possible successor at one time,” Harding told RFI.

Roque will be replaced with ice minister Bruno Rodriguez. A former journalist for Cuba's state-run press, Rodriguez was once Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations.

The call for greater efficiency has been a leitmotif throughout Raul’s career.

“Raul has a great confidence in military people. He’s a military man himself,” Harding said.

Raul reportedly sent military officers to business school to learn accounting and improve efficiency when he ran Cuba’s armed forces.

“The military in Cuba is really the most efficient business in the country,” Harding said, though he cautioned that this doesn’t mean that any economic liberalisations are on the horizon.