The Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla shared this Sunday on his X account a statement made by Raúl Castro more than two years ago to once again assert the so-called "Revolution" as a source of dignity, sovereignty, and political legitimacy in Cuba.
The Revolution dignified Cuba and its people. The very concept of power took on a new dimension when politics ceased to be the domain of an elite, and the entire population became the protagonist of its own destiny, says the quote now shared by Rodríguez Parrilla, signed simply as "RAÚL".
And it concludes with another common call in the rhetoric of the dictatorship, where Raúl in turn quotes his brother Fidel Castro: «That is why we must defend and carry forward this Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble».
The words do not correspond to a recent statement. Raúl Castro pronounced them on January 1, 2024, at the Céspedes Park in Santiago de Cuba, during the event for the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution. The chancellor did not indicate the date or the original context of the quote in his publication.
In that speech, Raúl defended the so-called "social achievements" of the system, portrayed the Revolution as responsible for independence and social justice in Cuba, and assigned the primary blame for the country's economic difficulties to U.S. policy.
He also emphasized the importance of unity around the Communist Party and urged Cubans to tackle difficulties by "fighting" and working harder.
More than two years later, Rodríguez Parrilla highlights precisely one of the passages that best encapsulates a narrative that has been repeated for decades by the Cuban government: the identification of the Revolution with the people, national sovereignty, social justice, and the nation itself.
This narrative has served to present as "the achievements of the Revolution" rights and services such as public education and healthcare, along with social, sports, and cultural policies, while the government traditionally attributes shortcomings and setbacks primarily to external factors.
The "Revolution" serves not only as a reference to the events that led to the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, but also as a political concept used by the regime to legitimize the system that emerged from that process and to assert historical continuity more than six decades later.
The formula is even incorporated into the constitutional order. The preamble of the Constitution of 2019 honors those who led the "popular revolutionary victory of January 1959," declares the intention to "carry forward the Revolution," and explicitly identifies with the "concept of Revolution" articulated by Fidel Castro.
The Constitution itself also establishes in its article 4 that the socialist system is "irrevocable" and defines in article 5 the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) as the "superior guiding political force of society and the State".
The ideological construction also has its reverse. For decades, the term "counter-revolutionary" has been used by the authorities to identify opponents, dissenters, and critics of the system, turning acceptance or rejection of the "Revolution" into a political boundary that transcends the debate about a historical event.
That discourse contrasts today with a society marked by poverty, blackouts, the deterioration of public services, shortages of medicine and food, and an exodus that has separated hundreds of thousands of Cuban families.
It also contrasts with the structure of power. Raúl Castro, at 95 years old, stepped down from the presidency in 2018 and from the first secretariat of the PCC in 2021, but he continues to be officially presented as the "leader of the Revolution".
At the same time, his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, "El Cangrejo", has gained prominence as a spokesperson for the regime with Washington despite not holding an official position in the Government.
In July, a member of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the PCC publicly confirmed that Rodríguez Castro plays that role by decision of "the highest leadership of the country".
The grandson and bodyguard of Raúl, a colonel in the Ministry of the Interior, had previously assured that he was willing to negotiate with representatives from the United States, including President Donald Trump.
The paradox is particularly evident in the phrase now recalled by Rodríguez Parrilla: while the official discourse claims that politics has ceased to be the "fiefdom of an elite" and that the people have become the "protagonists of their destiny", members of the family that led Cuba for decades continue to hold significant roles within both the formal and informal structures of power.
The publication of the chancellor illustrates the extent to which the so-called "Revolution" continues to operate as a reservoir of political legitimacy for the regime.
More than announcing a new occurrence of the general who promised "a glass of milk" to all Cubans, Rodríguez Parrilla retrieved a speech from 2024 in 2026 that, in turn, reproduces concepts used for decades to present the continuity of the system as equivalent to the defense of Cuba, its sovereignty, and its people.
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