Reflection Comrade Fidel
HEALTHY CHANGES IN THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
On the occasion of the changes in the heart of the executive branch, there are some cable agencies that are throwing up their hands in grief. Several of them are talking about or spreading the "rumors on the street" about how 'Fidel's men' have been replaced by ³Raúl¹s men². Most of those who have been replaced were never proposed by me. Almost without exception, they arrived at their positions by being proposed by other comrades in the Party or State leadership. I never devoted myself to that job. I have never underestimated human talent, or the vanity of man. The new ministers who have just been appointed were consulted with me, even though there is no rule saying that the people doing the proposing should do so since I gave up the prerogatives of power a while ago. They acted simply like genuine revolutionaries who bear their loyalty to principles. No injustice of any kind has been committed with specific cadres. Neither of the two mentioned in the cables as being the most affected, has spoken a single word in disagreement. It was absolutely not the absence of personal courage. There was a different reason. The sweet nectar of power for which they hadn't experienced any type of sacrifice awoke ambitions in them that led them to play out a disgraceful role. The enemy outside built up their hopes with them.
I do not accept the mixing up of gossip now with the World Baseball Classic that is about to begin. I have clearly said that our baseball athletes were first-class youth, and 'Homeland or Death' men. As I have stated before, we shall return with the shield or on the shield. We shall triumph because we know how to combine something that only free men are able to do, men who belong to no-one, not professional athletes. Leonel Fernández was telling me yesterday afternoon that the excellent professional baseball players from the Dominican Republic didn¹t want to take part in those competitions; they would be absent, causing pain to the nation where they were born. Chávez is still unaware why his magnificent pitchers and batters will be beaten by our athletes. This year, the Cuban team which will gauge its strength by the best U.S. and Japanese Major League professionals is much stronger and better trained than it was three years ago. Many of them are already veterans despite their youth. None of the men on the team stayed home, unless it was for health reasons. I assume total responsibility for success or defeat. The victories belong to us all; defeat shall never be an orphan.
Homeland or Death! We shall overcome!
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 3, 2009

Cuba Announces Govt Structural Changes

... the whole text of the official note emitted on government restructuring of ministries and officials´ movement in the State Central Administration.In accordance with the ideas expressed by President of the Council of State and Ministers, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, in the constituent session of the 7th Legislature of the National Assembly of the People´s Power on February 24, 2008, regarding that “it is required today a more compact and functional structure, with less number of organisms of the State´s central administration and a better distribution of the work they carry out,” the Council of State, on the proposal of its President, previously consulted with the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party, agreed in a meeting carried out today, make the following changes of officials and restructuring in some organisms of the State´s Central Administration:
1. Relieve comrade Jose Luis Rodriguez Garcia from the post of Vicepresident of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Economy and Planning.Appoint comrade Marino Murillo Jorge in the post of Vicepresident of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Economy and Planning and release him from his responsibility as Minister of Domestic Trade.
2. Relieve comrade Otto Rivero Torres from his responsibilities as Vicepresident of the Council of Ministers, taking into account he has concluded the transfer of the programs attended by him to the respective investor organisms. Vicepresident of the Government, Ramiro Valdes Menendez will be in charge of its coordination and control.
3. Fusion the ministries of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration and appoint comrade Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz in the post of Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, denomination that comprises the activities of Economic Collaboration carried out by the country.Relieve comrade Raul de la Nuez Ramirez from his responsibilities as Minister of Foreign Trade.
4. Fusion the ministries of Food Industry and the Fishing Industry and appoint comrade Maria del Carmen Concepcion Gonzalez, who was previously relieved from her duties as member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, as Minister of the Food Industry, denomination that comprises the activities of the Fishing Industry.Relieve comrades Alejandro Roca Iglesias and Alfredo Lopez Valdes from their posts as ministers of the Food Industry and the Fishing Industry, respectively.
5. Relieve comrade Felipe Perez Roque from his responsibilities as Minister of Foreign Relations and promote current First Deputy Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla to that post.
6. Relieve comrade Georgina Barreiro Fajardo from the post of Minister of Finance and Prices and name in her place comrade Lina Pedraza Rodriguez, also released from her condition of member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC in Spanish), responsibility from which she attended the global economic entities.
7. Relieve comrade Fernando Acosta Santana from the post of Minister of the Steel and Mechanic Industry and promote in his place the Brigadier General Salvador Pardo Cruz, who worked as Director General of the Military Industrial Union.
8. Promote comrade Jacinto Angulo Pardo, First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, to the post of Minister of that organism.
9. Relieve comrade Alfredo Morales Cartaya from the post of Minister of Labor and Social Security and promote in his place comrade Margarita Marlene Gonzalez Fernandez, currently First Deputy Minister of that organism.
10. Appoint as Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, organism to which the Science Center (research) is added for its attention, comrade Jose M. Miyar Barruecos, who was relieved to that end from his condition of Secretary of the Council of State.
11. Appoint in an interim manner, subject to his ratification by the People´s Power National Assembly in the next ordinary session period, deputy Homero Acosta Alvarez in the post of Secretary of the Council of State, with the duty to assist and aid the President, the First Vicepresident, the Vicepresidents and the rest of the members of the Council of State in the performance of their duties according to Articles 89, 90 and 93 of the Constitution of the Republic. The post of Secretary of the Council of State does not constitute in itself a decision-making authority and does not have any protagonism in the direction of the State.
12. Relieve comrade Carlos Lage Davila from his post of Secretary of the Council of Ministers and appoint to that responsibility the current chief of the Secretariat of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Brigadier General Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra, with the function of assisting and aiding the President of the Council of Ministers, the First Vicepresident and the rest of the members of the Executive Committee in their activities, corresponding to article 97 of the Constitution of the Republic and the current legislation and thus this post does not legally constitute an authority with decision-making functions in government matters nor it is attributed to him any protagonic role in the direction of the Government.

In the framework of these decisions, the Political Bureau and the Council of State ratified the validity of the words of comrade Raul Castro on February 24, 2008 when he expressed: “…the institutionality is one of the pillars of invulnerability of the Revolution in the political area, that is why we must work to constantly perfect it. Not think ever that which we have done is perfect.” In correspondence with the aforesaid, it was deemed necessary to continue studying the current structure of the Government with the aim to reduce gradually its magnitude and heighten its efficiency.