Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (Birán, Holguín, Cuba, June 3, 1931) is a Cuban military officer and politician, the younger brother and collaborator of Fidel Castro. He has been the President of the Council of State of Cuba and, therefore, the President of Cuba, since February 24, 2008, although he had been serving in an interim capacity since July 31, 2006. He also holds the military rank of Army General. Since April 2011, he has been the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, succeeding his brother Fidel in that position as well.
Son of the Lucense citizen Ángel Castro Argiz, he is the youngest of the three Castro brothers. Like Fidel, Raúl later attended the Jesuit College of Dolores in Santiago de Cuba, and the Colegio de Belén in Havana. The brothers actively participated in student protests. Raúl was a committed communist and joined the Socialist Youth, affiliated with the Cuban Communist Party, then known as the Popular Socialist Party (PSP).
Cuban Revolution (1953-59)
Raúl Castro, on the left, with Che Guevara in 1958.
Along with his brother, he was one of the members of the 26th of July Movement, which carried out the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, in the city of Santiago de Cuba. During the attack, he was tasked with supporting the actions from the rooftop of the Palace of Justice in that city, a mission he accomplished. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After being granted amnesty, he exiled himself to Mexico, where he took part in the preparations for the expedition of the yacht Granma, which would land in Cuba in December 1956 after a long journey.
He met Che Guevara in Mexico City and introduced him to Fidel's revolutionary circle. Raúl also contacted KGB agent Nikolai Leonov, whom he had met during his trip through the Eastern Bloc countries. This relationship would persist until the Castro brothers came to power in Cuba.
As a combatant in the Rebel Army, he participated in the Sierra Maestra campaign. On February 27, 1958, he was appointed commander and assigned the mission of crossing the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrillas to open the Eastern Second Front "Frank País" (in honor of a clandestine leader assassinated by Batista's forces in Santiago de Cuba) to the northeast. In that front, Raúl organized and structured a genuine government in the liberated territories, even creating the Rebel Air Force, as well as the first intelligence and police institutions of the revolutionaries, in addition to departments for health, education, and so on.
Post-revolutionary period (1959-2006)
In 1961, he became part of the National Directorate of Integrated Revolutionary Organizations. Following Che Guevara's departure, he became the second political figure in the government. He participated in the leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) in 1963. He was responsible for investigating, denouncing, and prosecuting members of the so-called "micro-fraction" within the Communist Party. From 1980, he took on supervisory roles alongside his brother in the Ministries of Defense, Interior, Culture, and Public Health.
Interim Government (2006-2008)
Raúl Castro alongside the former president of Brazil, Lula.
The constitutional successor of Fidel Castro, on July 31, 2006, his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga, announced that Raúl would temporarily assume the presidency of the Council of State, the secretaryship of the PCC, and the chief command of the Armed Forces, while his brother recovered from intestinal surgery.
During the time Raúl temporarily led Cuba, there were notable slight increases in the economy, along with the massive debate he himself incited regarding the country's issues, which resulted in public proposals from the population starting July 26, 2007.
In these debates, over 5 million proposals from the public were made, serving as the foundation for solving the issues that hinder the development of Cuban society.
Government (since 2008)
On February 24, 2008, he was elected President of the Council of State of Cuba by the Deputies of the National Assembly of People's Power, thus succeeding his brother Fidel Castro as the president of Cuba, who had resigned a few days earlier through an open letter.
New measures and changes in Cuban policy
..."In December, I spoke about the excess of prohibitions and regulations, and in the coming weeks we will begin to eliminate the simplest ones. Many of them had the sole objective of preventing the emergence of new inequalities, at a time of widespread scarcity, even at the cost of not receiving certain revenues." Raúl Castro Ruz February 24, 20081
In accordance with what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to lift various legal barriers that limited the people, such as the case of free access to hotels and car rentals, or allowing the unrestricted sale of mobile phones. In its inaugural session, he requested the National Assembly of People's Power for an extension until the end of 2008 for the restructuring of the Government, which took place in March 2009 with the merging of several ministries and the replacement of almost half of the ministers, including the well-known Carlos Lage Dávila and Felipe Pérez Roque.
Between September and November 2008, Cuba was hit by hurricanes Gustav, Ike, and Paloma, which resulted in losses exceeding ten billion dollars. The hurricanes dealt a severe blow to the Cuban economy, being described as the worst natural disaster in its history. This led to food shortages across the country and the implementation of strict measures to control any attempts at hoarding or speculation on goods and food
Since September 2008, the Cuban government decided to grant usufruct rights to farmers for idle lands. By December 2009, 920,000 hectares of land had been allocated in a process that has not been without difficulties and delays
In January 2009, the Social Security Law was reformed, raising the retirement age to 60 for women and 65 for men. This year, the salary cap has also been eliminated, multiple employment has been authorized, and performance-based pay has been reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, one of the subsidies in the country, were closed, and in exchange, workers were given an additional allowance of 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.
In 2009, the Castro government allowed Cubans to access the Internet at postal offices across the country, although some technical issues have arisen due to the U.S. embargo, which hinders fast connections. This situation was resolved in 2011 with the completion of a submarine cable between Venezuela and the island
On October 10, 2009, Lázaro Barredo, the director of the Granma newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, announced that the ration book would be eliminated and food assistance would be granted only to pensioners and people with low incomes.
By the end of October 2010, the Cuban government has allowed 178 private activities, with the aim of transitioning 1 million workers from bureaucratic jobs to productive ones, both public and private, within a period of three to five years.
In April 2011, he was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba at the Sixth Congress, where economic reforms were established to adapt the system to new economic developments and the global and national crises.
On February 24, 2013, the National Assembly of People’s Power re-elected Raúl Castro as president of the Council of State.
International Relations
Raúl Castro and the Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2009.
From the very beginning of his provisional government, Raúl Castro began to reassess relations with countries like Mexico and Russia, while also strengthening ties with China.
In his speech on December 2, 2006, Raúl Castro, then provisional president of Cuba, announced that the Cuban government was willing to start conversations with the United States in order to end the diplomatic limitations between the two nations, which would represent a definitive blow to the policy of rejecting anything American. The only condition set by the Cuban government is that the U.S. does not impose any conditions for initiating such dialogue.
In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, he expressed that he was open to a dialogue with elected President Barack Obama, and that such an interview could even take place on the territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base.
In December 2008, Raúl Castro undertook an important international tour that included Venezuela and Brazil. The highlight of his tour was his participation in the First Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador de Bahia. The framework of this summit facilitated Cuba's entry into the Rio Group.
On February 24, 2013, the National Assembly of People's Power re-elected Raúl Castro as president of the Council of State
On December 17, 2014, he announced, alongside his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba.
On April 19, 2018, Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the IX Legislature of the National Assembly of Cuba for the 2018-2023 term. In this way, he ceased his role as President of the Council of State but retained his position as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Family
