AUGUSTA (AP) – Baldacci administration officials said Thursday that Maine Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear remained 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 and understood that he would not be moved until Friday at the earliest.

“He is still in serious condition. He can’t be moved today but they are working on arrangements to move him tomorrow,” Baldacci said.

Spear’s family was said to be headed to Florida to await his arrival.

“It’s the best decision to wait until Friday,” Spear told Baldacci spokesman Lynn Kippax, according to Kippax, who has been working to facilitate Spear’s transfer to the United States.

State officials have been in contact with officials at the U.S. State Department and with personnel in Cuba.

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.

Spear’s trip to Cuba was described as 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.

Spear, who lives in Nobleboro, had been scheduled to return to Maine later this week.

Before being named to head the Agriculture Department by Gov. Angus King in 1999, Spear served for eight years in the Maine House of Representatives.

A 1965 graduate of the University of Maine, he also has worked at Spear Farms, Inc., a family-owned dairy and vegetable farm.

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