Cuba central bank head replaced in gov't shuffle

Posted on Friday, 06.05.09
Cuba central bank head replaced in gov't shuffle
The Associated Press

HAVANA -- The head of Cuba's central bank has resigned as President Raul
Castro pushes ahead with a government reorganization amid signs of a
cash crunch, state television reported Thursday.

Francisco Soberon, 64, has been replaced by Ernesto Medina, who heads
Banco Financiero Internacional, one of Cuba's biggest banks, according
to an official announcement read on the evening news. It did not say
when the move had taken effect.

Soberon, who led the bank for nearly 15 years, also asked to be removed
from the Cuban Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee and as
a parliament deputy, it said.

The statement offered no explanation for his resignation, but recent
restrictions placed on large cash withdrawals suggest a liquidity
problem on the island.

Soberon is known for carrying out the monetary policies of Castro's
older brother, Fidel, who resigned from the presidency last year because
of health problems.

In recent years, he oversaw the introduction of the Cuban convertible
peso, which replaced the U.S. dollar as Cuba's legal tender. The peso's
value is tied to a basket of foreign currencies, including the dollar
and the euro.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage
were removed from the Cabinet in a stunning shake up in March. At the
time, state media published letters that both men had written to Raul
Castro, acknowledging they had committed errors and promising to
continue to serve the country.

Since then, several other Cabinet members have also lost their jobs as a
large scale streamlining effort fused ministries that were deemed to
have similar, overlapping tasks.

Cuba central bank head replaced in gov't shuffle - Cuba -
MiamiHerald.com (5 June 2009)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1082412.html