Raúl Castro did not appear this time: the nonagenarian general made way for his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as El Cangrejo, who stood next to the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel at the funeral of two military personnel who died in Venezuela.
The ceremony took place on Friday afternoon at the Firefighters Monument in the Colón Necropolis of Havana, according to the official press.
The first colonels, Humberto Alfonso Roca Sánchez and Lázaro Evelio Rodríguez Rodríguez, along with Lieutenant Colonel Rodney Izquierdo Valdés and Captain Yorlenis Revé Cusa, were buried.
Raúl did send a floral tribute, and the eulogy for the deceased was read by Livan Izquierdo Alonso, the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Havana.
Then, according to a report from the Cuban News Agency (ACN), “blank shots were fired, and the Cuban leader paid a simple tribute to the fallen, which was attended by their family members and comrades from the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, along with the general public.”
The elder Castro had indeed been present on Thursday at José Martí International Airport, dressed in austere olive green uniforms and sporting athletic shoes, during the reception of the remains
Beyond the mourning for the 32 military personnel who lost their lives in Venezuela, the event was a symbolic display of discipline and hierarchy within the regime.
Raúl Castro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, José Ramón Machado Ventura, and the senior officials of the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) appeared in the same type of uniform: a closed jacket, a campaign cap, and visible epaulettes with military ranks embroidered in black, but without medals or decorations.
In December of last year, it emerged that El Cangrejo made at least 25 flights to Panama between 2024 and 2025 on a private jet linked to the Cuban military leadership.
According to documents obtained by Martí Noticias in collaboration with the Panamanian newspaper La Prensa and the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, the records correspond to a Dassault Falcon 900 EX aircraft, whose registration number was changed from a Venezuelan identification to one from San Marino, in order to complicate international tracking, according to investigative reporting sources.
Rodríguez Castro, son of the late General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja—former head of the military conglomerate GAESA—and Débora Castro Espín, the eldest daughter of Raúl Castro, has been identified in official events as part of the personal escort team of his grandfather, the man who allegedly still holds real power in Cuba.
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