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 had been serving in the role 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 position as well.
Son of the Lugo 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 demonstrations. Raúl was a convinced communist and joined the Socialist Youth, affiliated with the Cuban Communist Party, which was then called the Popular Socialist Party (PSP) and had a Soviet orientation.
Cuban Revolution (1953-59)
Raúl Castro, on the left, with Che Guevara in 1958.
Together 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 assigned the mission of supporting the actions from the rooftop of the Justice Palace in that city, a mission he fulfilled. He was arrested following the events and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Granted amnesty, he went into exile in 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 trip through the Eastern bloc countries. This relationship would continue 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 given the mission to cross the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrillas to open the Eastern Second Front "Frank País" (named in honor of a clandestine leader murdered by Batista's forces in Santiago de Cuba) to the northeast. On that front, Raúl organized and structured a true government in the liberated territories, even creating the Rebel Air Force, along with the first intelligence and police institutions of the revolutionaries, as well as health, education, and other departments.
Post-Revolutionary Period (1959-2006)
In 1961, he became part of the National Direction of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations. Following the departure of Che Guevara, 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 in charge of the investigation, denunciation, and prosecution of the members of the so-called "micro-fraction" within the Communist Party. Starting in 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.
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 secretariat of the PCC, and the role of Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces while his brother recovered from intestinal surgery.
During the time Raúl temporarily led the affairs of Cuba, there were noticeable slight improvements in the economy, as well as the massive debate he himself sparked regarding the nation's issues, 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 solving the problems 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, which he had resigned from 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 purpose 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, 2008
In keeping with what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to lift various legal barriers that restricted the people, such as the free access to hotels and car rentals, or allowing the unrestricted sale of cell phones. In its inaugural session, he requested an extension from the National Assembly of the 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 nearly half of the ministers, including the notable 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. The hurricanes dealt a severe blow to the Cuban economy, being classified 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 regarding goods and food
Since September 2008, the Cuban government decided to grant farmers usufruct rights to idle lands. By December 2009, 920,000 hectares of land had been awarded in a process that is not 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. Additionally, this year, the salary cap has been eliminated, dual employment has been authorized, and performance-based compensation has been reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, another of the country's subsidies, began to close, and in their place, workers were given an additional 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.
In the same year 2009, the Castro government allowed Cubans to access the Internet at postal offices throughout the country, although some technical problems have arisen due to the U.S. embargo, which hampers fast connections. This issue was expected to be resolved in 2011 with the completion of a undersea cable between Venezuela and the island
On October 10, 2009, Lázaro Barredo, director of the Granma newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, announced that the ration book would be eliminated and that food assistance would only be granted to retirees and individuals with low incomes.
At the end of October 2010, the Cuban government has allowed the exercise of 178 private activities, aiming to transition 1 million workers from bureaucratic jobs to productive ones, both public and private, within a timeframe 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 the new economic developments and the global and national crisis.
On February 24, 2013, the National Assembly of People's 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 early moments of his provisional government, Raúl Castro began to reassess relationships 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 talks 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 a dialogue.
In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, he expressed that he was open to a dialogue with the elected president Barack Obama, and that such an interview could even take place on the grounds of the Guantanamo Naval Base.
In December 2008, Raúl Castro undertook an important international tour that included Venezuela and Brazil. The highlight of his journey was his participation in the First Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador da 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 reelected 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 2018-2023 term. In this way, he ceased to hold the position of President of the Council of State but maintained his role 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.
