Cuba Replaces Transportation Minister

HAVANA – The Cuban government named a new transportation minister this week in the second Cabinet change since Raul Castro took temporary control of the nation while his brother Fidel recovers from surgery.

The official Prensa Latina news agency reported in a brief dispatch late Friday that the new minister will be Jorge Luis Sierra, a top Communist Party leader.

The government’s ruling Council of State made the decision to replace Manuel Pazo, responding “to the priority that this important sector requires,” the news agency said.

Cuba’s transportation sector is still struggling to recover from the severe economic crisis after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Cuba recently purchased scores of Chinese buses but most have been assigned to the tourism industry while average Cubans can wait hours for a crowded ride home on the city’s older buses.

In late August, Ramiro Valdes, a revolutionary commander and former Interior Minister, was named Cuba’s new Minister of Information Science and Communications – another key cabinet post.

Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul, the defense minister, in late July after undergoing intestinal surgery.