Federation of Cuban Women Has New Leader

HAVANA TIMES — The secretary general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and member of the Council of State, Yolanda Ferrer Gomez, was replaced on Saturday during a plenary session of the women’s organization, which was chaired by Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, the second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.

At the meeting, the announcement was made of the decision to “release Ferrer from her duties” and to replace her with Teresa Amarelle Boue, who until September had served as the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party in the eastern province of Las Tunas, reported the Granma newspaper.

According to an article posted at the Café Fuerte website, for 52 years Ferrer had remained among the leadership of the FMC, whose overall leadership she assumed after the death of its president and founder Vilma Espin, in June 2007.

Her replacement comes amid a wave of changes in the top leadership in Cuban provinces and in political organizations, with this being the seventh announced in less than a month.