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The professor Julio César González Pagés published an analysis on his Facebook profile regarding Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo," following the first interview that Raúl Castro's grandson gave to an American media outlet, the newspaper USA Today, last Monday.
In his post on Facebook, González describes Rodríguez Castro as "a man who acts as he was raised" and portrays him through a detail he finds revealing: a bling-bling style gold-plated chain with the initials of Fidel Castro Ruz and Raúl Castro Ruz, his idols and, at the same time, members of his own family.
"A 42-year-old person who sums up his devotion to the revolution with a flashy gold-plated chain featuring the initials of his idols who started this process: Fidel and Raúl," wrote the professor.
Rodríguez Castro showed that medallion to a journalist from USA Today during the interview, conducted in June in Havana, in the same office that his grandfather occupied at the Convention Center.
"If there's one thing I believe in, it's in these two men," he declared.
González does not adopt a tone of personal condemnation but rather an analytical one: "The Crab is not the villain; he is a man who acts as he was raised."
However, the historian—censored by Cubavisión in April 2025—draws a devastating contrast between the world of Rodríguez Castro and the reality of the average Cuban.
During the interview with USA Today, El Cangrejo appeared dressed in light blue jeans, a black Hugo Boss t-shirt, and Hermès sneakers, and expressed his wish that Cubans could buy foie gras in supermarkets and live with the same well-being as he does.
According to a joint journalistic investigation into his consumption habits, Rodríguez Castro made at least 23 private jet trips to Panama between 2024 and the end of 2025 for luxury purchases.
González points out that El Cangrejo is part of an elite that flaunts expensive clothing and luxurious travels, while other children of leaders "do it differently: hidden, discreet, and without interviews."
The professor also refers to the proposals that Rodríguez Castro put forward during the interview: releasing political prisoners in exchange and engaging in dialogue with Washington.
El Cangrejo himself stated to USA Today: "I can negotiate with anyone appointed by the U.S. If I am given the chance, of course with Trump."
The outrage generated by his words reached both the Cuban exile community and sectors of the regime itself within the island.
But González reserves his harshest criticism not for Raúl Castro's grandson, but for the system that produces him and for the chasm that separates those speeches from everyday reality.
"The misery and desolation experienced by the everyday Cuban people serves as the backdrop for many creative discourses that speak of homeland, nation, and nationalism from various ideologies and doctrines," wrote the historian.
And he closed with a stark image: "But in reality, time keeps passing, and those in reconcentration continue to die silently in hospitals and dark homes without medicine, food, water, and electricity."
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