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 role.
Son of the citizen from Lugo, 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 Belén College 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 the time was called the Popular Socialist Party (PSP).
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 Movimiento 26 de Julio, which carried out the attack 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 in that city, a mission he accomplished. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison. After being 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 travels through Eastern Bloc countries. This relationship would persist until the Castro brothers took 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 was assigned the mission of crossing the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrilla fighters to establish the Second Eastern Front "Frank País" (in honor of a leader of the underground movement who was murdered by Batista's forces in the city of Santiago de Cuba) to the northeast. On this 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 for the revolutionaries, in addition to departments for health, education, and more.
Post-Revolutionary Period (1959-2006)
In 1961, he became a part of the National Direction of Integrated Revolutionary Organizations. After Che Guevara's departure, he became the second political figure in the government. He was involved in the leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) in 1963. He was in charge of investigating, denouncing, and prosecuting 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 Brazilian president, Lula.
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 chief of the Armed Forces, while his brother recovered from intestinal surgery.
During the time that Raúl temporarily led Cuba, there were notable slight increases in the economy, and a mass debate incited by him regarding the nation's problems, which resulted in public expressions from the population starting on July 26, 2007.
In these debates, over 5 million proposals from citizens were made, serving as a foundation for solving the problems 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 in the presidency of Cuba, to which he had resigned a few days earlier via 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 aimed solely to prevent 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 accordance with what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to lift various legal barriers that limited the people, such as free access to hotels and car rentals, or allowing the unrestricted sale of mobile phones. In its constitutive session, he requested an extension from the National Assembly of People's Power until the end of 2008 for the restructuring of the Government, a process that 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 labeled as the worst natural disaster in its history. This resulted in a shortage of food across the country and the implementation of strict controls on any attempts at hoarding or speculation of goods and food
Since September 2008, the Cuban government decided to grant farmers the usufruct of idle lands. By December 2009, 920,000 hectares of land had been allocated in a process not free from 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, multi-employment has been authorized, and performance-based pay has been reinstated.
Since October 2009, the worker dining halls, one of the subsidies in the country, were gradually closed, and in their place, workers were given an additional amount of 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.
In the same year, 2009, the Castro government allowed Cubans to access the Internet at the country's post offices, although some technical problems have arisen due to the U.S. embargo, which hinders fast connectivity. This issue was expected to be resolved when a submarine cable was completed in 2011, connecting Venezuela and the island
On October 10, 2009, Lázaro Barredo, director of the Granma newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, announced that the ration card would be eliminated and food assistance would be granted only to pensioners and low-income individuals.
At the end of October 2010, the Cuban government has allowed the exercise of 178 private activities, with the aim of moving 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 first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba at the VI 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 very beginning of his provisional government, Raúl Castro began to reassess relations with countries such as Mexico and Russia, and the strengthening of ties with China was also evident.
In his speech on December 2, 2006, Raúl Castro, then provisional president of Cuba, announced that the Cuban government was willing to begin 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 set by the Cuban government is that the U.S. does not impose any conditions to initiate 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 this interview could even take place on the territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base.
In December 2008, Raúl Castro embarked on 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, 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 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 maintained 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 on June 18, 2007. They have four children from this marriage: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.
