Raúl Castro

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 president of Cuba, since February 24, 2008, although he held the position on an interim basis since July 31, 2006. He also holds the military rank of Army General. Since April 2011, he has served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, succeeding his brother Fidel in this role.

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 were actively involved in student demonstrations. 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).

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 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 Justice Palace in that city, a mission he successfully completed. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After being granted amnesty, he went into exile in Mexico, where he took part 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 trip through the Eastern Bloc countries. This relationship would continue until the Castro brothers took power in Cuba.

As a fighter in the Rebel Army, he took part in the Sierra Maestra campaign. On February 27, 1958, he was appointed commander and tasked with crossing the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrillas to establish the Second Eastern Front "Frank País" (named in honor of a leader of the underground murdered by Batista’s forces in Santiago de Cuba) to the northeast. In that front, Raúl organized and established a genuine government in the liberated territories, even creating the Rebel Air Force, as well as the first intelligence and police institutions for the revolutionaries, in addition to departments for health, education, and more.

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 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 onwards, 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 Brazilian president, Lula. As the constitutional successor to 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 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, as well as the massive debate he himself initiated regarding the nation’s problems, which led to public proposals from the population starting on July 26, 2007.

In these debates, more than 5 million proposals from citizens were made, serving as a foundation for addressing the issues hindering 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 President of Cuba, who had resigned just days earlier through an open letter.

New measures and changes in Cuban policy… "In December, I spoke about the excessive number of prohibitions and regulations, and in the coming weeks we will begin to eliminate the simplest ones. Many of them 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. Fulfilling what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to remove 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 mobile phones. In his 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 the well-known Carlos Lage Dávila and Felipe Pérez Roque.

Between September and November 2008, Cuba was battered by hurricanes Gustav, Ike, and Paloma, causing over ten billion in economic losses. The hurricanes dealt a severe blow to the Cuban economy, which was described as the worst natural disaster in its history. This resulted in food shortages nationwide and the implementation of strict measures to control any attempts at hoarding or speculation of goods and food.

Since September 2008, the Cuban state 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 was also removed, multi-jobholding was authorized, and performance-based pay was reintroduced.

Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, another form of subsidy in the country, have been closing down. In their place, workers were provided with an additional 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.

In the same year, 2009, Castro's government allowed Cubans to access the Internet at the country's post offices, 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, director of the Granma newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, announced that the ration card would be abolished and food assistance would be granted only to pensioners and individuals with low incomes.

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 positions in both 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 crisis.

On February 24, 2013, the National Assembly of Popular Power reelected Raúl Castro as President of the Council of State.

International Relations

Raúl Castro and Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2009. From the very beginning 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 interim president of Cuba, announced that the Cuban government was willing to begin conversations with the United States in order to end the diplomatic limitations between the two nations, marking a decisive 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 initiating such dialogue.

In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, he expressed his willingness to engage in a dialogue with the elected president, Barack Obama, and noted that this conversation could 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 trip was his participation in the First Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador, Bahia. The context 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 reinstatement 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 to hold the position of President of the Council of State but retained his role as the 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. They had four children together: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.