Havana, Oct 30 (EFE).- Division Gen. Alvaro Lopez Miera was named the new chief of staff of the Cuban armed forces on Thursday, replacing Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, who last week assumed the post of sugar industry minister, the government announced.
Lopez Miera, 54, had a long military career, participating in missions in Angola and Ethiopia. He was decorated on several occasions and bears the honorary title of "Hero of the Republic of Cuba."
He has been a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee since 1980 and was deputy chief of staff at the time of his appointment, according to a statement released by the Revolutionary Armed Forces, which are headed by Raul Castro, President Fidel Castro's brother.
Lopez Miera is the son of a former Spanish Republican leader, who came to the island as an exile and who was a professor of chemistry at the Santiago de Cuba University.
His predecessor, del Toro, was Raul Castro's number two man at the Defense Ministry and was appointed head of the Sugar Industry Ministry last week in a effort to improve sugar production, which has remained unprofitable for at least the past five years. EFE