New Cuba Cabinet Shakeup

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, May 4 — A new shakeup has occurred in the Cuban government with the removal of the minister of transportation, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, and sugar minister Luis Manuel Avila Gonzalez.  An official note says Sierra was guilty of “errors” and Avila of “deficiencies.”

Sierra, 48, was also removed as vice president of the Council of Ministers.  The note did not say whether he would still sit on the powerful Communist Party Politburo or lose his seat in the country’s parliament.

The new Council of Ministers VP is eighty-year-old General Antonio Erique Lusson.  Cesar Ignacio Arocha Masid, 51, with a military background and who worked for three years as the head of a Foodstuffs transport company affiliated with the ministry, takes over as the new Transport Minister.

Orlando Celso Garcia Ramirez, 53, is the new Sugar Minister, having held the post of vice minister.

The official note said that the demoted Sierra and Avila would be assigned other tasks.