HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has replaced its long-serving health minister, the
latest in a flurry of recent leadership changes by the government of
President Raul Castro.
Jose Ramon Balaguer, 78,
will rejoin the powerful Central Committee of the Communist Party,
according to a statement read Thursday night on government-run
television. It saluted Balaguer for his work, but offered few details on
why he was replaced.
Balaguer had held the post
since 2004, when he was a surprising choice to replace Damodar Pena, an
official made health minister in 2002 as part of a then effort to
promote younger leaders.
Trained as a physician,
Balaguer was a founding member of Cuba's Communist Party and has been an
ideological hard-liner for decades.
Replacing him will be 43-year-old Roberto Morales, a fellow physician who had been first vice minister of health.
Cuba provides free health care for all citizens, making
the health minister an influential position — but the Cabinet shake-up
was one of many of late.
In June, Cuba fired its
transportation minister for professional mistakes and replaced the head
of the Sugar Ministry after he admitted incompetence.
Those moves came after the March 23 replacement of Attorney General
Juan Escalona Reguera, who fought under Fidel and Raul Castro in the
rebel army that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year's Day
1959. Health problems were cited as the reason.
Also in March, Rogelio Acevedo, who as a teenager fought alongside the
Castros and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was abruptly dismissed as the
overseer of Cuba's airlines and airports for unexplained reasons.
Cuba has since been awash with rumors that Acevedo was
secretly running his own airline and otherwise misusing state aircraft.
The speculation was eventually mentioned in a controversial essay on
state corruption posted on a government website in April.
From: Fox8
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