Julio Casas, Cuban defense minister and longtime revolutionary, dies of heart failure

[Judi Lynn]

Julio Casas, Cuban defense minister and longtime revolutionary, dies of heart failure
By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, September 3, 2:41 P

HAVANA — Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro, who oversaw the Cuban military’s lucrative economic enterprises for years before replacing Raul Castro as defense minister, died Saturday of heart failure, state television reported. He was 75.

Casas, who was also a vice president of the Council of State, Cuba’s supreme governing body, was the most important figure from the revolution to die since Juan Almeida Bosque in 2009, and his death was sure to focus renewed attention on the fragility of the island’s aging leadership.

State television announced three days of national mourning in his honor, and immediately began playing retrospective footage of his life. It said that Casas’ body was cremated in accordance with his wishes, and that his remains would be placed in the Defense Ministry headquarters on Havana’s Revolution Plaza for public viewing on Monday. A large procession of people was expected to turn out. It was not clear if Raul or Fidel Castro planned to attend.

Casas served under Raul Castro in the rebel army that ultimately pushed out the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in early 1959. He was trained as an accountant, a profession that served him well in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, where he ran the military’s financial operations for two decades.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/julio-casas-cuban-defense-minister-and-head-of-militarys-financial-operations-dies/2011/09/03/gIQA6jvUzJ_story.html