The Council of Ministers approved Saturday to work under Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel includes nine new members, but there's also plenty of continuity with the council of his predecessor, Raul Castro.
Diaz-Canel, 58, who was elevated to the Cuban presidency on April 19 when Castro retired, was born after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, but the new Council of Ministers shows that his government is not yet ready to depart from the old guard. It still includes aging "historicos" who fought in the revolution.
Diaz-Canel is president of both the Council of Ministers and the Council of State, and Cuba watchers had been anticipating his ministerial picks as a way of measuring whether he might begin to move out from the long shadow cast by Castro, who is still head of Cuba's Communist Party.
The National Assembly of People's Power, Cuba's parliament, approved the selection Saturday of Salvador Valdes Mesa, who also was chosen as first vice president of the Council of State in April. A former labor leader, he joined the ranks of the revolutionaries as a teenager.
The National Assembly also discussed proposed constitutional reforms aimed at generational renewal that would change how government is structured in Cuba.
The Council of Ministers would be under the direction of a prime minister, a position that currently doesn't exist in Cuba, and it would be Cuba's highest executive and administrative body.
The president, vice president and secretary of the National Assembly would fulfill those same roles in the Council of State. Also proposed is limiting the presidential term to five years with a president allowed to only two consecutive terms. The minimum age for president would be set at 35 years, and the president would have to be under 60 years old when selected for a first term.
Holdovers from Castro's Council of Ministers who were retained as vice presidents on the Council of Ministers were: Ramiro Valdes, an 86-year-old revolutionary commander who is also a vice president on the Council of State; Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, 76, founder of the Communist Party of Cuba; and Ricardo Cabrisas, 81, who had been minister of the economy and planning.
Another military man, Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra, remains as secretary of the Council of Ministers.
Promoted to vice president posts were Ines Maria Chapman, a hydraulic engineer who had headed the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, and Roberto Morales Ojeda, a doctor who had been minister of public health since 2013. Chapman and Morales also were elevated to vice president posts on the Council of State in April.
Joining the Council of Ministers will be Jose Angel Portal Miranda, who replaces Morales as minister of public health, and Antonio Rodriguez Rodriguez, who takes Chapman's former job as president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources.
Abel Prieto, 67, who had been minister of culture twice _ most recently since July 2016 _ will be replaced by Alpidio Alonso Grau, 54, a poet and editor.
The other new members of the Council of Ministers are:
�� Iris Quinones Rojas, minister of the food industry.
�� Betsy Diaz Velazquez, minister of domestic trade.
�� Alejandro Gil Fernandez, the former deputy of economy and planning, who now becomes minister.
�� Raul Garcia Barreiro, minister of energy and mines.
�� Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, minister of communication.
�� Oscar Manuel Silveira Martinez, minister of justice.
Besides the vice presidents and secretary, 17 returning members of the Council of Ministers were approved by the National Assembly.
Among the departures from the Council of Ministers was Marino Murillo, a former vice president who was known as the czar for Castro's stalled economic reforms. He also lost his position on the Council of State in the spring.
