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Posted on Thu, Aug. 01, 2002
Cuba's Communist Party expels Robaina
Former foreign minister was accused of disloyalty to Castro
From Herald Staff and Wire Reports
In a development reminiscent of the 1989 purge of three Cuban ministers and the execution of four military officers, Roberto Robaina González, Cuba's foreign minister from 1993 to 1999, was summarily removed from the political bureau of the Communist Party and expelled from the party for activities ``incompatible with his post.''
The news came in the form of a videotape made at a meeting of the party's central committee and shown this week to lower-ranking party officials in Havana.
Party members who watched the undated two-hour tape told foreign news agencies and the Mexican daily La Jornada that Robaina, 46, was accused of dishonesty in his relations with foreign officials and business people.
The main charge was ''disloyalty'' to President Fidel Castro and the revolution, the party members said.
The central committee also instructed the National Assembly to expel Robaina, the tape reportedly shows.
Robaina also was barred from any kind of leadership role. It was not clear whether criminal or civil charges were filed against Robaina.
`I KNOW NOTHING'
Outside his Havana home Wednesday morning, Robaina said ''I know nothing'' about the reports. Then he got into his green Lada and drove away.
Robaina served six years as foreign minister before being replaced by Felipe Pérez Roque, 34, Castro's chief of staff for the previous 10 years.
Robaina then disappeared from public view.
Robaina's removal was never fully explained. The official Communist Party newspaper Granma attributed it to ''the need for more profound, rigorous, systematic and demanding work'' in the arena of international affairs.
DANGEROUS LIAISON
One of the charges reportedly made in the videotape was that Robaina maintained ''a close friendship'' with Mario Villanueva Madrid, former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo and currently under investigation in Mexico for alleged links to the Juárez drug cartel.
According to the party members who watched the tape -- and who were authorized by the party to describe it to others -- Robaina made several trips through the Caribbean aboard Villanueva's private jet plane and received $25,000 from the governor, presumably to renovate the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
He also accepted cash and checks from two foreign companies doing business in Cuba, ostensibly to renovate the Foreign Ministry and the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, the sources said.
After he was charged with having links to drug trafficking, Villanueva reportedly asked Robaina to give him political asylum in Cuba. Robaina refused, but did not mention the request to his superiors, according to the videotape.
The daily La Jornada reported that a segment of the tape shows Fidel Castro's brother Raúl saying that there was no special investigation into Robaina's behavior, but that ``the case was built from individual but successive bits of information.''
The tape also states that Robaina exceeded his ministerial duties by dealing with foreign entrepreneurs on a private basis, discussing affairs of state with them, and accepting furniture for his home from one of his foreign contacts.
His close relation with foreign journalists was also a factor in his dismissal, the sources said.
RESIGNATION REJECTED
When Robaina's activities came to light, he submitted his resignation to the party, but Raúl Castro rejected it and asked the full central committee to rule on Robaina's future, party sources said. The committee's decision was to expel him.
Robaina's career took him from mathematics teacher to president of the Federation of University Students and the Union of Communist Youths to foreign minister on March 30, 1993. At 37, he was the youngest person to occupy that post. He had no previous experience in diplomacy or foreign service.
Robaina replaced Ricardo Alarcón, who was appointed president of the National Assembly, a post he still holds.
Robaina, a gregarious man who usually wore a ponytail, pastel jackets and black T-shirt and jeans, was thought to have had an inside track for an even higher leadership post.
His selection ''represents the justified confidence that the revolution always has placed on youth and is a guarantee of a proven succession,'' Granma said days after Robaina's appointment.
NO MENTION OF TAPE
Granma made no mention of the videotape in its Wednesday edition.
Beginning in June 1989, four military officers and 10 Interior Ministry functionaries were tried on charges of corruption and drug trafficking.
The four officers, including Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez, former chief of the Cuban military mission in Angola, were executed.
The other 10 were cashiered, including Interior Minister José Abrantes. In a separate trial, Transport Minister Diocles Torralba was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.
Construction Minister Levi Farah Balmaseda was dismissed but not imprisoned.
PREVIOUS SHAKE-UP
A previous major shake-up occurred in 1992, when Carlos Aldana was removed as the Communist Party's chief of ideology, foreign affairs, science, education and culture.
Aldana, the third most powerful man in Cuba behind the Castro brothers, was often mentioned as a possible heir to Fidel.
Robaina, speaking in Mexico on Sept. 25, 1992, confirmed Aldana's ouster, saying he had ``abused the privileges of power in a way that was offensive to the people.
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Wie war das mit Robaina???
