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An airplane accident that occurred on September 24 in Maiquetía, Venezuela, revealed an alleged connection between Raúl Castro's grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro (El Cangrejo), and Venezuelan chavismo.
An investigation by Armando.Info, alongside the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP), Transparency Venezuela in Exile, and the newspaper La Prensa de Panamá, indicates that the flights of the Learjet 55 YV3440, which crashed that day, trace a circuit connecting Havana, Caracas, and Panama, featuring figures from the Cuban and Venezuelan powers.
Among the names of these notable individuals would be El Cangrejo, colonel in the Ministry of Interior and head of security for his grandfather. The grandson of Raúl was a frequent passenger on the same plane that crashed in Maiquetía, which was also used by Ramón Carretero Napolitano, a Panamanian businessman with million-dollar contracts with Nicolás Maduro's regime.
On one of those trips, in October 2023, Rodríguez Castro flew from Cuba to Panama and returned the next day on the same aircraft, which was already registered under a Venezuelan license plate.
Although the direct link between El Cangrejo and chavismo is not confirmed, the migration and flight documents reviewed by investigative media suggest a consistent relationship between both spheres of power.
Carretero, owner of companies such as Corporación Logística del Caribe and Lanvicorp, has been a supplier for the Maduro regime and has maintained operations in Cuba since 1996, associated with the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the military conglomerate controlled by the Castro family.
On another flight, on May 1, 2024, El Cangrejo traveled to Panama accompanied by Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, a brigadier general and the current president of GAESA, just four days before the presidential elections in that country. For researchers, the timing and business connections reinforce the hypothesis of an "airbridge" of political and economic interests between Havana, Caracas, and Panama.
The case also involves Edwin Abel Pitty Madrid, the current ambassador of Panama in Cuba, who was an executive of Grupo Carretero and legal representative of Corporación Logística del Caribe.
The work of Armando.Info, a media outlet known for its investigations into corruption, leads to a troubling conclusion: Raúl Castro's grandson is not only a privileged military figure in the Castro regime but also an active participant in a web that links Chavismo with the business dealings of the Cuban elite.
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