Cuba replaced its fishing minister this morning in the wake of a corruption probe that netted several middle-level officials, though the former minister was cleared of wrong doing.
Fishing Minister Orlando Rodriguez Romay was replaced by Alfredo Lopez Valdes, the director of the national power grid.
The case is the first in many years where a member of President Fidel Castro's cabinet fell due to officially recognized corruption in the ranks, foreign experts said.
Rumors of the scandal had circulated among diplomats and Havana residents since January.
With the opening up of the Cuban economy over the last decade to foreign investment and trade with the capitalist world, the communist-ruled island's top leaders have expressed increased concern about official corruption and doubled their efforts to combat it.
But diplomats and foreign businessmen said they encountered little corruption in their dealings with senior Cuban officials.
Shipping is a particularly sensitive sector for the government of Fidel Castro because the long-running US economic embargo restricts shipping between the two countries and bars third-party vessels that dock in Cuba from US ports for six months.