Fidel Castro: 2 ousted officials undone by `honey of power'

[Jimmy2]

Fidel Castro says he was consulted on the sweeping leadership changes by his brother Raúl's government and he says two of the ousted officials had been seduced by ``the honey of power.''

Castro's newly published article gives the first hint of why some of the officials were removed in the abrupt shakeup -- the largest in decades.

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque was dismissed and Vice President Carlos Lage was stripped of his post as Cabinet secretary. Twenty other officials were shifted, removed or promoted.

The elder Castro wrote Tuesday that he had been consulted about the changes and said the two most mentioned had been seduced by ''the honey of power,'' though he did not name them.

Although he will remain as vice president of the more important council of state, Lage was replaced as secretary of the council of ministers by a military general who last served as Castro's chief of staff at the defense ministry. A brigade general was also named minister of the Iron and Steel Industry.

Lage's departure from the council of ministers and the recent promotions of three others close to Raúl Castro leaves the Cabinet leadership in the hands of members of the armed forces and people in his closest confidence. Some Cuban exile leaders in Miami fear that the personnel moves announced on Cuban television's midday newscast after the sports and weather reports show Castro is closing ranks and consolidating power.

His choice to tap a military general underscores how Castro -- Cuba's longest serving defense minister -- wants to be surrounded by members of the institution he knows and controls best: the armed forces. The Cuban American National Foundation said the moves were reminiscent of Russian Communist leader Joseph Stalin and are ``demonstrative of the regime's desire to place additional control of the government in the hands of the Cuban military.''

''I think this is Raúl definitely trying to put his own stamp on the government,'' said Sandy Acosta Cox, a political analyst at ECHO-Cuba, a Miami nonprofit that offers aid to evangelical churches on the island. ``I think this demonstrates that there were factions within the government: Fidelistas and Raulistas. . . . Positioning key Raulistas in place, especially before the major announcement everyone is anticipating -- Fidel's death -- ensures that there won't be a power struggle between the two factions.''

Raúl Castro took over from his brother in the summer of 2006 but was not officially named president until a year ago. He took office under the pledge of efficiency, and often used his rare moments on the public stage to blast the Cuban government's notorious wastefulness.

Several of Monday's the decisions appear in line with that vow to run a leaner government.

He merged the ministries of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation and also combined the ministries of the food and fishing industries.

Several of the people named to top posts are unknown technocrats, which shows Castro is trying to streamline the country's bureaucracy and put the best people forward, said Frank Mora, an expert on the Cuban military at the National War College in Washington. ''This is Raulismo at its best,'' Mora said. ``I don't see ideology. I don't see power politics. I see Raúl being Raúl.''

Case in point: Castro sacked a foreign minister known for being a political hack who got his job because he had been Fidel Castro's personal assistant. At 43, Pérez Roque had already been in the job for a decade. When he was named , the announcement noted that ''few people know Fidel's thoughts better than him.'' The Cuban state media later published a clarification.

Pérez Roque was replaced Monday by his deputy, Bruno Rodríguez, a career diplomat who once served as the ambassador to the United Nations. It was the first time Cuba's foreign-minister job went to a career foreign-service officer and not a political appointee, Mora said.

It was unclear why Lage was removed from his job at the council of ministers while getting to keep his more important post.

Lage, 57, a physician, is known as an economic reformer credited with helping Cuba survive the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He was once considered an heir apparent in Cuba, and his name was even mentioned as a possible successor for the presidency when Fidel Castro resigned last year.

He was replaced by Brigade Gen. José Amado Ricardo Guerra, current chief of the secretariat of the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Also ''freed'' from his post at the council of ministers was longtime communist youth leader Otto Rivero Torres, who had been in charge of Fidel Castro's pet project, the ''Battle of Ideas'' campaign.

His duties will be assumed by Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, an old-time revolutionary stalwart and hard-liner who was recently named vice president of the Cabinet.

El Nuevo Herald staff writer Wilfredo Cancio Isla contributed to this report.