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 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 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 School of Dolores in Santiago de Cuba and the Belén School in Havana. The brothers actively participated in student demonstrations. Raúl was a committed communist and joined the Socialist Youth, affiliated with the Cuban Communist Party, which at that time was called the Popular Socialist Party (PSP).
Cuban Revolution (1953-59)
Raúl Castro, on the left, with Che Guevara in 1958.
Alongside his brother, he was one of the members 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, he was tasked with supporting the actions from the rooftop of the Justice Palace in that city, a mission he fulfilled. He was arrested shortly after the events and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After being granted amnesty, he exiled himself to Mexico, where he participated in the 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 contacted KGB agent Nikolai Leonov, whom he had met during his travels through Eastern bloc nations. This relationship would persist until the Castro brothers took power in Cuba.
As a combatant of 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" (in honor of a leader of the underground movement who was murdered by Batista's forces in Santiago de Cuba) toward the northeast. In that front, Raúl organized and structured a genuine government in the liberated territories, even creating the Rebel Air Force, along with the first intelligence and police institutions for the revolutionaries, as well as health, education departments, and more.
Post-revolutionary period (1959-2006)
In 1961, he became part of the National Direction of Integrated Revolutionary Organizations. Following Che Guevara's departure, he became the second political figure of the government. He was involved in the leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) in 1963. He oversaw the investigation, denunciation, and prosecution of 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 former President of Brazil, Lula.
Constitutional successor to Fidel Castro, on July 31, 2006, his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga, announced that Raúl would temporarily assume the presidency of the State Council, the secretaryship of the PCC, and the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, while his brother recuperated from an intestinal surgical procedure.
During the time Raúl temporarily guided Cuba's fate, there were noticeable slight increases in the economy, and the massive debate he initiated around the nation's problems led to public discussions from the population starting on July 26, 2007.
In these debates, over 5 million proposals from citizens were made, forming the basis for resolving 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, to which he 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 them had the sole objective of preventing the emergence of new inequalities, at a time of widespread scarcity, even at the cost of forgoing 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 unrestricted access to hotels and car rentals, or allowing the free sale of cell phones. In its inaugural session, he requested an extension from the National Assembly of People's Power 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 struck by hurricanes Gustav, Ike, and Paloma, which caused over ten billion in economic losses. The 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 attempt at hoarding or speculation of 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 is 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. This year, the salary cap has also been eliminated, multiple employment has been allowed, and performance-based pay has been reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, another form of subsidy in the country, were closed down, and instead, workers were given an additional 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.
This same year, 2009, the Castro government allowed Cubans to access the Internet at post offices across the country, although some technical issues have arisen due to the U.S. embargo, which hinders fast connections. This would be resolved with the completion of a submarine cable between Venezuela and the island in 2011
On October 10, 2009, Lázaro Barredo, director of the Granma newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, announced that the ration book would be abolished and food assistance would be granted only to pensioners and low-income individuals.
At the end of October 2010, the Cuban government allowed the establishment of 178 private activities, aiming to transition 1 million workers from bureaucratic jobs to productive roles, both public and private, 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 crisis.
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 nations like Mexico and Russia, and there was also a noticeable strengthening of ties with China.
In his speech on December 2, 2006, Raúl Castro, then the provisional president of Cuba, announced that the Cuban government was willing to initiate discussions 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 everything American. The only condition from the Cuban government is that the U.S. does not impose any conditions for starting such dialogue.
In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, he stated that he was open to a dialogue with President-elect 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 a significant international tour that included Venezuela and Brazil. The highlight of his tour was his participation in the I Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador, Bahia. The context of this summit served as the backdrop for 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 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 period 2018-2023. In this way, he ended his role as President of the Council of State but retained his position as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Family
Raúl was married to Vilma Espín from the early days of the Cuban Revolution until her passing (June 18, 2007). He has four children from this marriage: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.
