AUGUSTA (AP) – Baldacci administration officials said Wednesday evening that Maine Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear was hospitalized with an infection in Cuba, where he had traveled on a trade mission over the weekend.

Gov. John Baldacci said he had spoken to Spear’s wife and that Spear’s condition was regarded as serious.

“He’s currently in the hospital in Havana, Cuba,” Baldacci spokesman Lynn Kippax said.

Kippax said the U.S. State Department had been contacted and “they have committed to air-evac the commissioner from Havana to the United States.”

Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Ned Porter said Spear’s trip to Cuba was a follow-up to a larger trade mission that was undertaken late last year.

In December, Baldacci announced that Cuba had agreed to purchase up to $10 million worth of farm products including potatoes, apples and dairy cattle from Maine producers.

“This agreement shows the importance of increasing our reach across state and national boundaries to enable Maine agricultural producers and other businesses to gain new markets,” Baldacci said in a written statement.

Porter said Spear had been scheduled to return to Maine later this week.

Spear, a former Republican lawmaker from Nobleboro, has served as head of Maine’s Department of Agriculture since 1999 and is one of several Baldacci Cabinet members held over from the administration of Gov. Angus King.

Announcing Spear’s renomination, Baldacci’s office said Spear had agreed to stay on for up to two years and that Porter, who previously worked on Baldacci’s congressional staff, would also be kept on.

Spear served four terms in the state House of Representatives before running unsuccessfully for the Maine Senate in 1998.

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