Odds and ends

·         Raul Castro proposed, and the Council of State agreed, to remove Abel Prieto as culture minister, a post he has held for 15 years, and to replace him with his deputy.  Prieto, whose work was described as “positive” in this nota oficial, now becomes an advisor to Raul.

·         El Espectador: Colombian President Santos will go to Cuba tomorrow, he said, “to have the opportunity to talk personally, as good friends talk with each other, with the Cuban government, with Raul Castro, about the matter of the summit.”  He refers to the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, an event where Cuba’s friends in the hemisphere are making an issue of Cuba’s exclusion.

·         The Environmental Defense Fund will administer a Pew Fellowship awarded to a Cuban marine scientist, Dr. Fabian Pina, for three years of research that he will conduct in Cuba (see EDF press release).  This is a step forward in environmental collaboration and a good move by the Obama Administration.

·         Digging into a case covered by Granma, the Herald identifies a Cuban who once lived in Hialeah as the subject of an investigation into the operations of a farm in Matanzas that benefited from reportedly illegal acquisition of supplies.