Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo" or "Raulito," gave his first public interview this Friday to the media The National, alongside the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Carlos Méndez, at a moment meticulously timed: one day after the regime approved the largest economic reform package in its history.
The moment is not coincidental. 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-run companies, the elimination of the 100-worker limit for micro, small, and medium 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 lieutenant 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 unwavering openness: "Cuba does not represent the slightest threat to the interests and national security of the United States. In that sense, we continue to offer a civilized relationship, one of respect and on equal terms."
However, he acknowledged that the conversations with Washington have not yielded results: "I wish I could answer yes to that question, but the reality is that I cannot."
Vice 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 across practically 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 practically every sector of the economy ranging from mining, tourism, real estate, to the banking and financial sectors."
The backdrop is bleak. Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed an effective oil embargo through Executive Order 14380, which prohibits any country from supplying fuel to Cuba.
The result: blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day and, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, children dying due to lack of medication.
In addition to that pressure, Raulito's grandfather, Raúl Castro Sr., was formally accused by the United States Department of Justice in May for the downing of two planes from Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, resulting in four fatalities.
Raulito acknowledged the difficulty of the context without compromising on the substance: "It is difficult, it really is difficult, to hold any type of conversation, discussion, negotiation, or dialogue in a very hostile environment of coercive measures, threats, and pretensions of conditioning and imposition."
According to a report by Axios, since February 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been engaged in 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 was emphatic in stating that it is Rubio who is leading the maximum pressure campaign, and that Secretary of State himself has acknowledged that he and Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart are the ones shaping Trump's Cuba policy.
The vice president JD Vance responded to the reforms with caution: "We'll see what they do. If they make smart decisions, we will have a much better relationship with that island."
The lingering question is whether these 176 measures—and Raulito's public emergence as an informal spokesperson for the regime—will be sufficient for Washington, or if they merely represent another move on a board where, as Raulito himself admitted, no concrete results have yet emerged.
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