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Raúl Castro sent a message of congratulations to Tô Lâm following his election as president of Vietnam, in one of the few signs of public activity from the elderly general so far in 2026.
The news was shared this Sunday by the Cuban ambassador in Vietnam, Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, through his X account.
In his message, Castro described the election as a "just recognition of their unwavering revolutionary loyalty and their proven ability to continue guiding the heroic Vietnamese nation in building socialism."
Tô Lâm was elected president by the National Assembly of Vietnam on April 7, with the , for the term 2026-2031, according to a report by the Xinhua agency. The power transfer ceremony was formalized at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, where he replaced Lương Cường.
Castro's gesture takes on special significance in a context of growing uncertainty about his health and his gradual withdrawal from public life.
The general, aged 94, significantly increased his public appearances in 2025—he was present at the Torch March in January, the May Day parade, the promotion of the Minister of Interior in June, and the final session of the National Assembly in December—but in 2026, no confirmed physical appearances have been recorded.
His last documented physical appearance was on December 2, 2025, when he was seen frail and struggling to walk.
In January 2026, he was absent, with no official explanation, from a tribute to Cuban soldiers who fell in Venezuela, and on April 2, he was credited with a congratulatory message to the Central Army for its 65th anniversary.
The message to Tô Lâm is, therefore, one of his few signs of public activity this year, while his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo," has emerged as a key interlocutor in negotiations between the Castro clan and the Trump administration, having engaged in dialogue with Secretary of State Marco Rubio's team in Saint Kitts and Nevis at the end of February.
Days before Castro's congratulatory message, President Miguel Díaz-Canel had also greeted Tô Lâm through his X account, which prompted ironic comments from Cubans on social media: "Ask him for rice," they wrote, referring directly to the food crisis the island is facing.
The joke is not without basis: Vietnam has donated a total of 67,940 tons of rice to Cuba between 2018 and 2024, including 10,000 tons in April 2025 and a donation of 15 million dollars during Díaz-Canel's visit to Hanoi in September of the same year.
Tô Lâm visited Cuba from September 25 to 27, 2024, where he met with both Díaz-Canel and Raúl Castro himself, was awarded the José Martí Order, and signed seven cooperation agreements, including a rice production plan on Cuban lands.
Vietnam is Cuba's second largest trading partner, with an exchange of approximately 340 million dollars, and in February 2026, the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla met with Tô Lâm in Hanoi, where the Vietnamese leader reiterated his country's support for the island.
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