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, consequently, the President of Cuba since February 24, 2008, although he had been serving in this capacity on an interim basis 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 this role 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 School of Dolores in Santiago de Cuba and the Belén College 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, which at the time was known as the Popular Socialist Party (PSP), with Soviet orientation.
Cuban Revolution (1953-59)
Raúl Castro, on the left, with Che Guevara in 1958. Along with his brother, he was a member of the Movimiento 26 de Julio, which carried out the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, in the city of Santiago de Cuba. During the attack, his mission was to support the actions from the rooftop of the Palace of Justice, a task he successfully completed. He was later arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After being granted amnesty, he went into exile in Mexico, where he participated in preparations for the Granma yacht expedition, 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 made contact with KGB agent Nikolai Leonov, whom he had met during his travels through Eastern Bloc countries. This relationship would continue until the Castro brothers seized power in Cuba.
As a fighter 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 Second Eastern Front "Frank País" (named in honor of a clandestine leader who was murdered by Batista's forces in the city of 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 and the first intelligence and police institutions for the revolutionaries, along with health, education, and other departments.
Post-Revolutionary Period (1959-2006) In 1961, he became part of the National Directorate of Integrated Revolutionary Organizations. After Che Guevara's departure, he emerged as the second most prominent 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 the investigation, denouncement, and prosecution of members of the so-called "micro-fraction" within the Communist Party. Starting in 1980, he held supervisory roles alongside his brother in the Ministries of Defense, Interior, Culture, and Public Health.
Interim government (2006-2008)
Raúl Castro alongside former Brazilian President Lula. As Fidel Castro's constitutional successor, 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 Communist Party, and the position of Chief Commander of the Armed Forces while his brother recovered from intestinal surgery.
During the period when Raúl temporarily led Cuba, there were notable slight increases in the economy, along with the massive debate he himself sparked concerning the nation's problems, which resulted in public discussions from the population starting on July 26, 2007.
In these debates, over 5 million proposals were made by citizens, serving as a basis for addressing 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 in the presidency 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 excessive prohibitions and regulations, and in the coming weeks we will begin to eliminate the simplest ones. Many of these were aimed solely at preventing the emergence of new inequalities during a time of widespread scarcity, even at the cost of forgoing certain revenues." Raúl Castro Ruz, February 24, 2008. In line with what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to dismantle various legal barriers that restricted the population, such as the free access to hotels and car rentals, as well as allowing the unrestricted sale of cell phones. At 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 nearly half of the ministers, including well-known figures Carlos Lage Dávila and Felipe Pérez Roque.
Between September and November 2008, Cuba was hit by Hurricanes Gustav, Ike, and Paloma, which caused over ten billion in economic losses. These hurricanes dealt a severe blow to the Cuban economy, being described as the worst natural disaster in its history. This resulted in food shortages across the country and the implementation of strict measures to control any attempts at hoarding or speculation of goods and food
Since September 2008, the Cuban government decided to grant usufruct rights to farmers for idle land. By December 2009, 920,000 hectares had been allocated in a process not without challenges and delays
In January 2009, the Social Security Law was reformed, raising the retirement age to 60 for women and 65 for men. Additionally, this year the salary cap was eliminated, multiple employment was permitted, and performance-based pay was reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, another form of subsidy in the country, have been closing down, and in their place, workers have been given an additional amount of 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.
In 2009, the Castro government allowed Cubans to access the internet at the country's post offices, although some technical issues have arisen due to the American embargo, which hampers fast connections. This problem was resolved in 2011 when a submarine cable was completed between Venezuela and the island
On October 10, 2009, Lázaro Barredo, the director of Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, announced that the ration book would be eliminated and that food assistance would be granted only to retirees and individuals with low incomes.
By the end of October 2010, the Cuban government allowed 178 private activities, aiming to transition 1 million workers from bureaucratic jobs to productive roles in both the public and private sectors within a period of three to five years.
In April 2011, he was elected as the 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 Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2009. From the early moments of his provisional government, Raúl Castro began to reassess relations with countries such as Mexico and Russia, and there was also a noticeable strengthening of 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 initiate discussions with the United States to end the diplomatic limitations between the two nations. This marked a decisive blow to the policy of rejecting everything American. The only condition set by the Cuban government is that the United States must not impose any preconditions for starting such dialogue.
In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, he expressed his willingness to engage in dialogue with the elected president Barack Obama, and stated that the meeting could even take place on the territory of the Guantánamo Naval Base.
In December 2008, Raúl Castro undertook an important international tour that included Venezuela and Brazil. The highlight of his trip was his participation in the I Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador da Bahia. The context of that 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 American counterpart Barack Obama, the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States 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 ended his role as President of the Council of State but remained in his position as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Raúl was married to Vilma Espín from the early days of the Cuban Revolution until her passing on June 18, 2007. He has four children from this marriage: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.
