Who's in and who's out in Cuba government shakeup
Who's in and who's out in the shakeup of Cuba's government announced Monday:
_FOREIGN MINISTER: Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, No. 2 in the ministry, replaces Felipe Perez Roque.
_SECRETARY OF COUNCIL OF MINISTERS: Brig. Gen. Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra, long Raul Castro's secretary at the defense ministry, replaces Carlos Lage.
_VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS: Government Vice President Ramiro Valdes Menendez takes over the functions of Otto Rivero Torres. It is unclear whether he gets the title as well.
_SECRETARY OF COUNCIL OF STATE: Homero Acosta Alvarez replaces Jose Miyar Barrueco, pending ratification.
_SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: Barrueco takes on this position, vacant since Rosa Elena Simeon died in 2004.
_ECONOMY MINISTER: Marino Murillo Jorge, who had been minister of internal commerce, replaces Jose Luis Rodriguez Garcia.
_INTERNAL COMMERCE MINISTER: Jacinto Angulo Pardo, the No. 2 in the ministry, replaces Murillo Jorge.
_EXTERNAL COMMERCE AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT MINISTER: Former U.N. ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz replaces External Commerce Minister Raul de la Nuez Ramirez; Malmierca had replaced Foreign Investment Minister Marta Lomas in November.
_FOOD AND FISHING MINISTER: Maria del Carmen Concepcion Gonzalez, who had been a member of the Communist Party's food industry committee, replaces Food Minister Alejandro Roca Iglesias and Fishing Minister Alfredo Lopez Valdes.
_FINANCE MINISTER: Lina Pedraza Rodriguez, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party's Secretariat, replaces Georgina Barreiro Fajardo.
_HEAVY INDUSTRIES MINISTER: Brig. Gen. Salvador Pardo Cruz replaces Fernando Acosta Santana.
_LABOR MINISTER: Margarita Marlene Gonzalez Fernandez, a top ministry official, replaces Alfredo Morales Cartaya.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
On Monday, Raúl Castro, the President of Cuba, announced several changes of ministers in his cabinet. This is the first major reshuffle since Raúl took over as President after his brother Fidel Castro. A total of twelve ministers were replaced.
Raúl Castro in 2008. 
One of the highest profile changes was Carlos Lage Dávila, the executive secretary of the Council of Ministers, who was replaced by General José Amado Ricardo Guerra. According to senior research associate at the University of Miami, José Azel, Lage was responsible for rescuing the Cuban economy from the downturn that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was not announced whether Lage will continue to serve in his other position as the vice president of the Council of State of Cuba.

"It looks like Raúl putting some of his own people in," said Wayne Smith, who heads the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy. Smith added that this "is the biggest shake-up that I've seen in a very long time ... for the last 30 or 40 years."

"This is one more sign that Raúl Castro is consolidating his power," José Azel said. "He's putting his people in there."

"It is a new direction, we're just not clear what direction Castro is planning — a return to communist orthodoxy or pragmatism? However, Castro does seem to be trying to put in position people closer to him than to his brother, Fidel," said Al Jazeera's Latin America editor, Lucia Newman.

Among other ministers replaced were foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque, finance minister Georgina Barreiro Fajardo, labor minister Alfredo Morales Cartaya, and economy minister Jose Luis Rodriguez.