HAVANA, CUBA.- Army General Raul Castro Ruz announced today in Havana the composition of the members of the Political Bureau, during the closing session of the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

Fourteen comrades were elected to the Political Bureau: Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Salvador Valdes Mesa, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Army Corps General Alvaro Lopez Miera, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento and Teresa Amarelle Boue.

Marta Ayala Avila, Manuel Marrero Cruz, Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra, Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas, Lazaro Alvarez Casas and Gladys Martinez Verdecia were also elected.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, elected at the session as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC, presented as members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee Roberto Morales Ojeda, for the attention of the Department of Organization and Politics of Cadres, and Jose Ramon Monteagudo, Head of the Agri-Food Department.

Rogelio Polanco Fuentes was selected to head the Ideological Department, while Jose Luis Broche Lorenzo was appointed to head the Department of Education, Sports and Science, and Joel Queipo to lead the Economic Department.

The Political Bureau is responsible for directing all party work, implementing the agreements of the congresses, conferences and plenary sessions of the Central Committee, to whom it reports on its work.

Regarding the daily functioning of the Party, the Political Bureau is supported by the Secretariat of the Central Committee.