Cuba: Newspaper chief is new Venezuela ambasssador
Associated Press
HAVANA -- Cuba named the director of a Communist Party-run newspaper as
its next ambassador to Caracas on Wednesday, replacing a longtime envoy
to a country that has become a key ally under Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez.
Rogelio Polanco Fuentes directs the newspaper Juventud Rebelde and is a
deputy in the National Assembly, Cuba's parliament.
His predecessor, German Sanchez Otero, often defended Chávez against his
Venezuelan opposition, including during a brief 2002 coup.
The announcement in Cuba's state-run media did not elaborate on the
switch. But it said Polanco Fuentes has played a leading role in
diplomacy toward Venezuela and will be assigned unspecified ``other tasks.''
President Raúl Castro swore in 38 new Cuban ambassadors on Saturday --
the latest in a series of high-level government changes.
A Cabinet purge in March saw Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and
Vice President Carlos Lage lose their jobs. And in June, Central Bank
chief Francisco Soberon was replaced by Ernesto Medina, who headed Banco
Financiero Internacional, one of Cuba's biggest banks.
Venezuela and Cuba maintain close political and economic ties. Fidel
Castro and Chávez are friends, and Chávez was among the first to visit
Castro when the then-Cuban president fell ill in 2006.
Cuba's national statistics institute says trade with Venezuela soared to
$5.2 billion in 2008, up from $945,000 in 2003. Much of that stems from
a pact under which Venezuela sells Cuba oil on preferential credit terms.
Havana in turn has sent thousands of medical personnel to Caracas. Both
nations have invested in an oil refinery that began operations in 2007
in Cuba's Cienfuegos province.
They also promote a regional trade alliance called ALBA, designed to
counter U.S. trade expansion in Latin America.
Cuba: Newspaper chief is new Venezuela ambasssador - Cuba -
MiamiHerald.com (12 August 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1183119.html
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