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The Cuban historian and professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández published a scathing analysis on Friday regarding the media operation surrounding Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro known as "the Crab," following the profile published by USA Today on July 6.
According to the analysis by López Hernández on CubaxCuba, this journalistic work is not intended for Cubans, but rather to shape the perception of an international audience —particularly that of President Donald Trump— about the man the regime is trying to present as the possible face of a future Cuba.
The author identifies in the USA Today profile a series of assessments that she considers part of a deliberate construction: that Raúl Guillermo "holds an influence, authority, and political weight that are hard to ignore"; that he "is in a position to negotiate the future of his country"; and that he is "a bridge to the negotiators of the United States." The conclusion of the text, according to López Hernández, aims to convince readers of something implausible: that the Cangrejo is not only the hope of the political class he represents but also of the Cuban people.
USA Today concludes its profile with an image that the dissident describes as propaganda: "Rodríguez Castro may or may not reach the pinnacle of formal power on the island. But, in a certain sense, he is already exerting control. In meetings with high-ranking Cuban officials, everyone yields the floor to him. When he walks down a hallway, those who see him stand up. And when he walks down the street, Cubans stop what they are doing to follow him with their gaze."
López Hernández points out that the profile seems like "a commissioned work" designed to appeal to Trump: Raúl's grandson is not a traditional politician; he enjoys luxury and private parties, and his favorite baseball team is the New York Yankees, the same as that of the American president.
To understand why the regime needs to create this urgent interlocutor, the analyst reviews the state of the Castro succession. Raúl Castro is 95 years old, and his advanced age coincides with the terminal crisis of the model he established. None of the natural candidates from his circle survived or proved viable: his son-in-law Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, president of GAESA, died in July 2022 at the age of 62; commander Ramiro Valdés passed away on June 21, 2026, at the age of 94; and Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, son of Fidel, took his own life in February 2018.
Among Raúl's children, Alejandro Castro Espín participated in negotiations with Obama between 2013 and 2014, which stalled at partial reforms. Mariela Castro is a staunch critic of imperialism and Trump in front of international leftist sectors, which would make any shift towards Washington unfeasible. Thus, according to López Hernández, "only Raúl Guillermo remains," who has gone from being merely his grandfather's custodian to overseeing classified reports from three ministries, acting as a liaison between GAESA and Raúl Castro, and traveling 23 times to Panama in the past year to seek investment opportunities.
The Cuban ambassador to Uruguay, when recently asked who Raúl Guillermo was, responded with a nervous smile: "a bodyguard for his grandfather." This answer illustrates, according to the dissident, how recent and rapid the "swift construction of the character" has been, initiated only after the events in Venezuela and Trump's ultimatum to the Cuban regime.
López Hernández also does not hold back in criticizing the contradictions of Raúl Guillermo himself. In the interview with USA Today, Raúl's grandson stated, "It hurts me deeply that people cannot live like I do. My greatest sorrow is that people struggle." However, this same individual declared that he would like Cubans to be able to "buy foie gras in supermarkets," in a country where 89% of the population lived in extreme poverty in 2025, and more than 11,000 protests shook the island that year.
The activist concludes with a warning that goes beyond the character: "It is not about the grandson of Raúl Castro being the only one able to represent the interests of the Cuban nation at a negotiation table with the United States; it is about the legitimization before Washington of an inexperienced offspring of the power group, even if they are open to the development of capitalism, above any institution, so that when the 'historical generation' disappears in the near future, the system of political exclusion they created remains unchanged."
López Hernández writes from the house arrest he has been under since June 18, 2024, while his trial in Matanzas remains indefinitely suspended.
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