Ricardo Alarcon, Cuba’s National Assembly President, will be
leaving that post because his name did not appear on the list of legislative
candidates, AP
reports. Alarcon is a former foreign
minister and UN Ambassador and has been Havana’s senior point man for relations
with Washington, with broad U.S. contacts.
The detention of one of his top aides last year on apparent corruption
charges has led to conjecture that Alarcon is being pushed out because of some connection
to the case. Absent evidence to back
that up, it appears to be a retirement – he is 75 years old, has held his
current job for 19 years, his career extends all the way back to the 1959
revolution, and this is a time when there is an effort to put younger officials
into high-level posts. Besides, when an
official is removed for cause, the Cuban government’s practice is to say so.
Other leadership news, also from
AP: Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, 54, has been promoted to the
Communist Party’s political bureau, the small, inner-circle body at top of the
party’s organizational structure.
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