Raul Castro Dismisses Culture Minister and Names Abel Prieto

Raul Castro Dismisses Culture Minister and Names Abel Prieto / 14ymedio

14ymedio, 8 July 2016 — Abel Prieto is the new Minister of Culture after
Raul Castro decided to "release from his duties" the person previously
responsible for this area, Julián Gonzalez Toledo.

The designation of Prieto, until now advisor to the president of the
Councils of State and of Ministers, is provisional, according to the
note published in the Party newspaper Granma.

González Toledo had assumed the portfolio of Culture in March 2014,
after two years as deputy minister, replacing Rafael Bernal Alemany
after a notorious scandal over the theft of dozens of works in the Museo
Nacional de Bellas Artes, which could have cost the outgoing minister
his job.

Toledo Gonzalez previously led the National Council of Performing Arts
from 1999-2011.

His last public appearance as minister occurred on July 1 when he
inaugurated the new edition of the Art Fair on La Rampa, and in
particular the exposition Fidel, Soldier of Ideas by photojournalists
Livorio Noval and Ismael Francisco González.

Prieto, originally from Pinar del Rio, now returns to a position that he
previously served in between 1997 and 2012. A graduate of the University
of Havana in Hispanic Literature and author of the novel The Flight of
the Cat and Other Stories, he was director of the publishing house
Letras Cubanas and president of the National Union of Writers and
Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

As an advisor to Raul Castro, in forums with artists and youth on
artists he has been prodigious in his criticisms of "new forms of
cultural consumption, like that of postmodern relativism that accepts
everything as good."

Source: Raul Castro Dismisses Culture Minister and Names Abel Prieto /
14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/raul-castro-dismisses-culture-minister-and-names-abel-prieto-14ymedio/