October 8, 1999
HAVANA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Cuba's sacked former foreign minister Roberto Robaina, considered a rising political star before his surprise May dismissal, is ending his ``holidays'' to study at a military college, the government said on Thursday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez told reporters that Robaina would spend a year at the National Defence College -- ``a prestigious institution ... where important cadres of the government pass through.''
Robaina follows in the footsteps of at least one other Cuban official also sent to the college in recent years after falling out of favour in President Fidel Castro's government.
Robaina, 43, was dismissed in a surprise move on May 28. He was replaced by Castro's closest personal aide, 34-year old Felipe Perez Roque.
No official explanation was given for his sudden departure, fuelling a spate of rumours, including that Robaina had had a personal clash with Castro.
Ministry spokesman Gonzalez scoffed at the latest version to surface in a U.S. newspaper that Robaina may have lost his job because he was considering defecting from the island.
``We should not give any credit to the fantasies invented every week by the Herald,'' he said, when asked about this week's article in the Spanish-language daily El Nuevo Herald, a strongly anti-Castro newspaper based in Miami.
Since his dismissal, Robaina has not been seen in public.
Appointed foreign minister in 1993, he had been viewed by some as a possible reformer from within the ruling Communist Party. He had also been viewed as a likely member of a possible collective socialist leadership in a post-Castro era.
Officials have generally avoided discussing Robaina's status in public, saying he was merely taking ``holidays'' while he awaited new duties after being replaced in May.
Gonzalez could not confirm when Robaina would start at the military college, but stressed it was an important ``center for high-level political, strategic studies.''
16:06 10-07-99
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited
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