Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo" or "Raulito," gave his first public interview to the media The National this Friday, alongside the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Carlos Méndez, at a meticulously timed moment: one day after the regime approved the largest economic reform package in its history.
The moment is not a coincidence. On Wednesday, the Communist Party approved before the National Assembly 176 measures organized into 23 strategic axes, which include private banking, the buying and selling of shares in state-owned companies, the removal of the 100-worker limit for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the entry of private capital into the energy sector.
Raulito, 41 years old, does not hold an official position in the government, but he is a colonel in the Ministry of the Interior and has been the head of the General Directorate of Personal Security for Raúl Castro since 2016.
It is considered the main informal channel between the regime's leadership and the Trump administration, and was one of the interlocutors of the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, when he traveled to Havana in May.
His central message was one of uncompromising openness: "Cuba poses the slightest threat to the interests and national security of the United States. In that sense, we continue to offer that civilized relationship, that relationship of respect and on equal terms."
However, he acknowledged that talks with Washington have not yielded results: "I would like to answer yes to that question, but the reality is that no."
Deputy Minister Méndez clarified the scope of the reforms to potential investors: "We are not privatizing the economy; what we are doing is increasing the private sector's participation in the economy, in virtually all sectors."
Méndez also made a direct appeal to American businessmen: "We want you to know, to understand that Cuba is a country open to investment... that we have business opportunities in almost every sector of the economy ranging from mining, tourism, real estate, to banking and finance."
The backdrop is grim. Since January 2026, the Trump administration has enforced an effective oil embargo through Executive Order 14380, which prohibits any country from supplying fuel to Cuba.
The result: blackouts lasting over 20 hours daily, and according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, children dying due to a lack of medications.
This pressure is compounded by the fact that Raulito's grandfather, Raúl Castro Sr., was formally accused by the United States Department of Justice in May for the shooting down of two planes from Hermanos al Rescate in 1996, resulting in four fatalities.
Raulito acknowledged the difficulty of the context without backing down on the substance: "It's hard, it really is hard to engage in any kind of conversation, discussion, negotiation, or dialogue in an extremely hostile environment of coercive measures, threats, and attempts at conditioning and imposition."
According to a study by Axios, since February 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been holding secret conversations with Raulito to explore transition scenarios, bypassing the formal apparatus of the Communist Party and Díaz-Canel himself.
Professor William LeoGrande from American University made it clear that it is Rubio who is leading the maximum pressure campaign, and that the Secretary of State himself has acknowledged that he and Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart are shaping Trump's Cuba policy.
The Vice President JD Vance responded to the reforms cautiously: "Let's see what they do. If they make smart decisions, we will have a much better relationship with that island."
The question that remains open is whether these 176 measures —and Raulito’s public emergence as an informal spokesperson for the regime— will be enough for Washington, or if they merely represent another move on a chessboard where, as Raulito himself admitted, there is still no concrete result.
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