HAVANA, Dec. 22nd.The rumours that circulate in Cuba about the health status of Bruno Rodríguez seem to be confirmed again not only in the face of the Chancellor’s marked weight loss and physical deterioration but with the appointment of a new First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced Tuesday.

In accordance with Rodríguez’s Twitter, Gerardo Peñalver was appointed to that position, replacing Marcelino Medina, who held it for 12 years.

“I congratulate Gerardo Peñalver, the new First Vice Minister of Foreign Relations. Marcelino Medina has been successful in his new duties in the external service, whom I congratulate for his meritorious commitment, dedication and results in the last 12 years,” Rodríguez wrote.

Medina, who served between 2001 and 2005 as Cuban ambassador to Germany, will be the new representative of Havana at its Embassy in Madrid.

For its part, Penalver, who has a degree in International Political Relations, has held various responsibilities in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) And since 2020 he served as vice-minister in the Island’s Chancellery.

That designation is added to that of Josefina Vidal, one of the negotiators of the so-called thaw of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, as the new vice minister last October.

The diplomatic official, who is also a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), was an ambassador to Canada.

At the end of September, Vidal had left the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa and announced his return to the island after more than four years in the North American country amid the greater official silence about his new position.

“Back in Cuba. My deepest gratitude to all those in Canada who offered their collaboration, support and friendship, and contributed to the consolidation of relations between the two countries and between Cubans and Canadians,” he wrote on September 28 through from your account on the social network Twitter.

The official website of MINREX did not report on that occasion the end of Vidal’s mission, who in 2018 received from Miguel Díaz-Canel the lifetime “Rank of Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba”, a distinction awarded by the regime for the first time to her.

Various observers consider that the replacement of the current chancellor could occur at any time and the current changes of positions are made to prepare his replacement.