Roberto Robaina
Roberto " Robertico " Robaina González ( born March 18, 1956 in Pinar del Río, Cuba ) is a Cuban painter and former politician.
Life
After school he studied mathematics and then worked as a mathematics teacher.
Robaina began his political career within the youth organization of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC ), the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas ( UJC ), was president of the official Student Association Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios ( FEU ) and moved in 1986 as the successor of Carlos Lage from the Second to the First secretary of the UJC on. In this role was the same year his election to the Central Committee of the PCC and 1991 ( the youngest member ) in the Politburo.
He was appointed by the Prime Minister, Fidel Castro, in place of Ricardo Alarcón as Foreign Minister, he would have had without international or diplomatic experience at this time in 1993. He was also seen as a possible successor to Castro. In an interview, the journalist and dissident Norberto Fuentes doubted early on Robainas leadership qualities for a successor Castro.
After six years in office, however, he was dismissed in May 1999, to the surprise of many international observers as foreign minister. At that time, his dismissal of the government was merely on the grounds that " this area is in need a deeper, more rigorous, more systematic and more demanding processing ". Robaina himself stepped out of the political spotlight and also in the following years there were no further background, why he had fallen out of favor. Successor as Secretary of State was then Castro's previous private secretary and close confidant Felipe Pérez Roque.
He was expelled because of " disloyalty to the Cuban Revolution " from the PCC, after his discharge petition previously rejected by the party leader, Fidel Castro and the matter was submitted to the Central Committee for consideration in 2002. In an exclusive pre- party members led, two-hour video documentary was explained that Robaina did not represent viewpoints had authorized contacts with foreign officials and businessmen and abroad during his tenure as Secretary of State, to which he was also not have had jurisdiction. He had maintained friendly contacts among others, the later for drug trafficking and money laundering convicted governor of the Mexican province of Quintana Roo, Mario Villanueva and get from this money. In addition, he was criticized for his statements at home and abroad, which allowed the conclusion that he was future president of Cuba. In the Cuban media reported neither the sins nor the expulsion from the party. Corruption rumors brought Robaina, who had already enjoyed the privileged life of a high functionary in a relatively young age, popularly mocking the modification of his family name to " Roba y na ' " a ( " He steals and (otherwise ) nothing ").
Roberto Robaina was after his release from time to time administrator of the urban Almendares Park and has later issued as a self taught artist in galleries in Cuba and abroad. In the wake of President Raúl Castro's initiative to facilitate the creation of small private companies ( since 2010) Robaina opened in 2011 with his family in Havana, the restaurant " La Paila ", which is operated by his son. But He says that he continues to live exclusively from the painting.