The official state media Cubadebate published an opinion piece this Saturday titled "Raúl," authored by the Mexican philosopher and communicator Fernando Buen Abad, in which he praises the figure of Raúl Castro using laudatory language and presents him as a symbol of "revolutionary permanence" endowed with an "extraordinary capacity for political leadership."
The text is part of a series of propaganda actions coordinated by the Cuban regime surrounding the figure of the 95-year-old former leader, whose health status raises increasing uncertainty and whose real political role is a topic of debate.
Buen Abad, with a long-standing connection to Cuban spaces and media, describes Castro as an embodiment of "discipline, memory, method, experience, and responsibility," and asserts that "surviving such a succession of worlds demands more than biological longevity: it requires an extraordinary capacity for political leadership."
The article reviews the former leader's journey from the assault on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, his sentencing to 13 years in prison, the amnesty of 1955, the landing of the Granma in 1956, and his command of the Second Eastern Front Frank País in 1958, concluding that "permanence is not repetition here, and perhaps that is where the deepest significance of his figure resides."
The publication comes just two weeks after Raúl Castro made a public appearance on September 6 at an event marking the 65th anniversary of the Personal Security Directorate of MININT, alongside Miguel Díaz-Canel and without delivering a speech, following months of rumors regarding his death or serious physical decline.
Days before that article, on September 7, the International Book Fair closed in Santiago de Cuba with the presentation of the "Selected Works of Raúl Castro," a collection of nine volumes containing over 500 documents and more than 5,000 pages published by Ediciones Celia.
The regime's propaganda campaign surrounding Castro has intensified throughout 2026 with slogans such as "Raúl is Raúl" and "With one foot in the stirrup," which have been active since September 2025 and have been reactivated this year.
His public appearances have been scarce and laden with symbolism: on May 1st, he appeared visibly unwell, he showed up again at the event marking Fidel Castro's centenary on August 14th, and on July 26th, he missed the central event for the National Rebellion Day for the first time in decades, where Díaz-Canel read a message signed by him.
In June, Díaz-Canel himself described him as "alive but withdrawn for health reasons" and "fragile due to his advanced age," while Castro was celebrating his 95th birthday amid reports of his indictment in the United States for the downing of aircraft in 1996.
The regime thus turns to foreign sympathetic intellectuals to project an image of relevance and historical legitimacy that contrasts with the reality of a former leader whose health is fragile and whose actual influence over the lives of Cubans—characterized by decades of repression, scarcity, and mass exodus—is completely omitted by the Cubadebate article.
The text by Buen Abad concludes with a statement that encapsulates the tone of the propaganda assignment: "Raúl Castro has shown conviction in discipline, in memory, in method, in experience, and in responsibility. This is perhaps the most sober form of revolutionary integrity."
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