One-time rising political star in Cuba going to jail

Posted on Thu, Jun. 22, 2006

CUBA
One-time rising political star in Cuba going to jail
One of the youngest members of Cuba's ruling Politburo was sentenced to
12 years in prison for influence-peddling.
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA - A Communist official long held up as an example of the island's
future leadership was sentenced to 12 years in prison for
influence-peddling, the party said Wednesday.

Juan Carlos Robinson Agramonte, among the youngest members of the ruling
Politburo before being kicked out of the elite body and the party in
April, pleaded guilty Friday during a trial in Havana, the official
Granma newspaper said. Government prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence.

''It was demonstrated that Robinson Agramonte, in the open process of
his ideological weakening and with abuse of his position, forgot his
high responsibilities and the integrity demanded of a revolutionary
cadre and used his influence to obtain benefits,'' Granma said.

It offered no specifics on what benefits were obtained or how Robinson
used his influence to get them.

Cuban officials had once pointed with pride to Robinson as an example of
the island's young black leadership.

Robinson, now 49, is from the eastern city of Santiago -- Cuba's
second-largest city -- and had been the party's first secretary for the
Santiago Province since 1994.

But in late April, the Politburo announced that Robinson was expelled
from the party for repeatedly failing to overcome ''errors'' such as
abuse of authority and arrogance.

At the time, the party leadership said Robinson had become ``a
lamentable and unusual case of the inability of a political cadre to
overcome his errors.''

Cuba is striving to build up its younger leadership to eventually take
over for the original revolutionary leaders, many of whom are now in
their 70s. President Fidel Castro will turn 80 in August, and his
brother and constitutionally designated successor, Defense Minister Raúl
Castro, is 75.

''Criticized, warned and exhorted more than once by the [party
leadership] to overcome his failings, he pretended to recognize them and
end them,'' the Politburo said in April.

''But that wasn't what happened,'' it said.

The party leadership indicated Wednesday that Robinson should serve as
an example, warning that ``in our country, no one, despite their
responsibilities and merits, can violate the law. He who does so will
inexorably receive the weight of revolutionary justice.''

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