I can't read that last page as anything but "the Cheetah is dead, long live the Cheetah." Not to mention that there were a *number* of supplementary publications around and immediately after this time period - an annual, an encyclopedia, etc etc - which Jimenez had a hand in which completely pumped boy!Cheetah as the Cheetah, with the extensive bio and the big giant picture and the minor footnote saying "the previous Cheetah was named Barbara Minerva and he stole it from her." There's nothing to suggest he meant to keep Minerva around and a great deal to suggest he felt Ballesteros was a deliberate switch.
And Rucka killed Ballesteros. Off-panel. Then blew up his corpse. Johns fed his blood to Urzkartaga. Jimenez was long gone by then.