Cuba Has New Higher Education Minister

HAVANA TIMES, May 8 — Miguel Diaz Canel Bermudez, an electronic engineer with a military and Communist Party background, has been chosen by the Cuban Council of State to replace Juan Vela Valdes as the country’s minister of Higher Education.

Vela was congratulated on his efforts but it was not stated if he would go on to hold another government post.

Diaz Canel’s last position was as First Secretary of the Communist Party for Holguin Province, a position he held from 2003 until April 2009, reported the Cuban press on Friday.

Cuba has both a Ministry of Education, whose minister is Ena Elsa Velazquez Cobiella, and another specifically for Higher Education, now headed by Diaz Canel.