The official state medium Cubadebate published an opinion article this Saturday titled "Raúl," signed by the Mexican philosopher and communication specialist 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 regarding the figure of the 95-year-old former leader, whose health status is generating increasing uncertainty and whose true political role is a subject of debate.
Buen Abad, with a long-standing connection to Cuban spaces and media, describes Castro as the embodiment of "discipline, memory, method, experience, and responsibility," and asserts that "surviving such a succession of worlds requires more than biological longevity: it demands an extraordinary capacity for political leadership."
The article reviews the trajectory of the former leader from the assault on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, his sentence to 13 years in prison, the amnesty of 1955, the landing of the Granma in 1956, and the 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 lies."
The publication comes just two weeks after Raúl Castro made a public appearance on September 6th at an event commemorating 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 concluded in Santiago de Cuba with the presentation of the "Selected Works of Raúl Castro," a collection of nine volumes containing more than 500 documents and over 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 rare and filled with symbolism: he appeared visibly frail on May 1, he made another appearance at the event for Fidel Castro's centennial on August 14, and on July 26, he missed the central event for 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 turned 95 amid news of his indictment in the United States for the shooting down of planes in 1996.
The regime thus turns to sympathetic foreign 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 real influence over the lives of Cubans—marked by decades of repression, scarcity, and mass exodus—is entirely omitted by the article from Cubadebate.
The text by Buen Abad concludes with a statement that summarizes the tone of the propaganda message: "Raúl Castro has demonstrated conviction in discipline, memory, method, experience, and responsibility. This is perhaps the most sober form of revolutionary integrity."
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