Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo," could not contain his emotion this Saturday during the ceremony for the 65th anniversary of the Personal Security Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, when the improvised poet Marcos David Fernández Brunet performed a décima dedicated to his grandfather Raúl Castro.
The image of the visibly affected grandson in response to the laudatory verses referencing the recent rumors about Castro's deteriorating health did not go unnoticed, and on social media, it was ironically labeled as "crab tears."
“And now what will be told to us / let them keep all their evils / their income, their hospitals (sic) / their hate and their poison over there / look closely, here it is / with its brother, with its stirrup / to make the triangle olive green on the flag / whether the empire wants it or not / it will continue to be alive”, improvised the pro-regime repentista.
The event, held in Havana, commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Minint agency responsible for protecting the highest leaders of the regime, which was founded on September 6, 1961.
Raúl Castro led the ceremony alongside the ruling Miguel Díaz-Canel and received recognition from Brigadier General Emir Mesa Corona, head of the Directorate, for being a founding member of the organization alongside Fidel Castro.
The Minister of the Interior, Army General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, read aloud a letter of congratulations sent by Raúl Castro himself to the members of the force.
"I am not exaggerating when I speak of personal security as the loyal family that those of us who have had the responsibility of leading the revolution have had," read one of the passages of the letter.
In the letter, Raúl Castro also paid tribute to the 32 Cuban agents who died in Venezuela on January 3 of this year: "I want to pay tribute today to our 32 fallen comrades in Venezuela in the performance of their duty, may the blood they shed never be forgotten."
"This meeting has been very exciting for me. I want to express all the affection I feel for you as family, as a brother. And even though you have kept me in check for more than half my life, I want to sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart," the text emphasizes.
Castro remained seated in the front row throughout an event that was clearly aimed at dispelling rumors about his health.
Fernández Brunet, a young repentista from Cienfuegos who won the first national prize for repentismo on the television program Palmas y Cañas in 2018, closed the event with a décima of a combative tone, honoring the figure of the general and former president, in line with the artists that the regime incorporates into its political celebrations.
The reaction of "El Cangrejo" is striking given the profile it has acquired in recent months: in July he granted his first interview to U.S. media, where he discussed negotiating with Donald Trump and cautioned that he would not "sacrifice the revolution."
Linked to the Personal Security Directorate since 2016, Raúl Castro's grandson is the son of Débora Castro Espín and the late general Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, and one of the men closest to the power circle of his grandfather.
His presence at the event comes just days after international media reported that Raúl Castro is seriously ill and would be receiving life support, making his public reappearance at the ceremony even more significant.
The event took place weeks after the official celebrations of the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth and the recent 95th birthday of Raúl, whom the official speech presented as "founding leaders and permanent guides" of the regime's personal security.
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