Odds and ends

• La Jornada: Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Cuba’s 48-year-old transportation minister, was replaced in that job by a 51-year-old. But he was also a vice president of the Council of Ministers, and he was replaced in that job by 80-year-old Antonio Enrique Lussón Batlle, a veteran of the 1959 revolution. The result is that four of six vice presidents of the Council of Ministers are from that generation, ages 80, 78, 68, and 86. Raul Castro has now replaced two thirds of the cabinet.

• El Pais: A Spanish legislator travels to Cuba, enters on a tourist visa, meets with dissidents, and holds a press conference denouncing her government’s policies toward Cuba – all without incident.

• AP nails down the health insurance requirement for tourists: the requirement is not yet being applied evenly, and the cost is $3 per day.

• Carlos Varela arrived in Miami to begin a concert tour and gave an airport press conference where he said, “I have never liked actos de repudio in or outside of Cuba,” and answered questions on political topics. He remarked: “I believe if you go to Cuba and you see what is on people’s minds, in the day to day, in that magic word resolver, what they think about least is politicians and politics.” El Nuevo story here; San Francisco Chronicle interview here.

• Miami’s Channel 41 uses a blogger’s video without attribution, and Tracey Eaton complains. As well he should.

• The Herald’s Fabiola Santiago reviews a new book on the city of Matanzas and its cultural contributions.