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, thus, 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, taking over this position from his brother Fidel 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 College of Dolores in Santiago de Cuba, and the Belen 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 was then referred to 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 executed 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 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 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 the Eastern Bloc nations. This relationship would endure 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 tasked with the mission of crossing the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrillas to open the Eastern Second Front "Frank País" (in honor of a leader of the underground who was murdered by Batista's forces in the city of Santiago de Cuba) to the northeast. On that front, Raúl organized and established a functioning government in the liberated territories, even creating the Rebel Air Force, as well as the first intelligence and police institutions for the revolutionaries, along with 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 the departure of Che Guevara, he became the second political figure in the government. He took part in the leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) in 1963. He was in charge of the investigation, prosecution, and trial 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 President of Brazil, Lula.
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 role of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces while his brother recovered from an intestinal surgical procedure.
During the time that Raúl temporarily led Cuba, there were notable slight increases in the economy, as well as the massive debate he incited 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 the public were made, serving as the foundation 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, thereby succeeding his brother Fidel Castro as the President 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 excess 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 not receiving certain revenues." Raúl Castro Ruz, February 24, 2008
In compliance with what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to remove various legal impediments that limited the people, such as the restrictions on free access to hotels and car rentals or allowing the unrestricted sale of cell phones. In its inaugural session, he requested the National Assembly of People's Power 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 hit by hurricanes Gustav, Ike, and Paloma, which caused more than ten billion in economic losses. The hurricanes dealt a severe blow to the Cuban economy, 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 speculating on 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 granted 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. This year, the salary cap has also been eliminated, multi-employment has been authorized, and payment by results has been reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, another form of subsidy in the country, began to close, and instead, workers were given an additional 15 pesos daily for their lunch or snack.
In the same year 2009, Castro's 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 hindering fast connections. This situation was expected to improve 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 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.
At the end of October 2010, the Cuban government has allowed 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 circumstances 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 the Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2009.
From the early moments of his provisional government, Raúl Castro began to reassess relations with nations 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 the provisional president of Cuba, announced that the Cuban government was ready to initiate conversations with the United States in order to end the diplomatic limitations between the two nations, marking a decisive blow to the policy of rejection of anything American. The only condition set by the Cuban government is that, precisely, the U.S. does not impose any conditions for initiating such dialogue.
In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, he expressed his openness to a dialogue with elected President Barack Obama, and noted that such an interview could even take place on the territory of the Guantanamo 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 First Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador, 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 reelected 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 term 2018-2023. In this way, he stepped down from his position as President of the Council of State but retained his role as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Family
Raúl was married to Vilma Espín from the beginning of the Cuban Revolution until her passing (June 18, 2007). He has four children from this marriage: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.
