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 the position 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 that role as well.
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 School of Dolores in Santiago de Cuba, and the Belén School in Havana. The brothers were actively involved in student demonstrations. Raúl was a staunch 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.
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. In the attack, he was tasked with supporting the actions from the rooftop of the Palace of Justice in that city, a mission he fulfilled. He was arrested 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 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 assigned the mission of crossing the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrillas to establish the Second Eastern Front "Frank País" (named in honor of a resistance leader assassinated by Batista's forces in Santiago de Cuba) to the northeast. In that 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, along with health and educational departments, among others.
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 the members of the so-called "micro-fraction" within the Communist Party. Beginning in 1980, he undertook supervisory tasks alongside his brother in the Ministries of Defense, Interior, Culture, and Public Health.
Interim government (2006-2008)
Raúl Castro alongside the former president of Brazil, Lula.
The constitutional successor of 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 an intestinal surgical procedure.
During the period when Raúl temporarily led Cuba, there were notable slight increases in the economy and a massive debate he himself incited regarding the nation’s problems, which resulted in public proposals from the population starting on July 26, 2007.
In these debates, over 5 million proposals from citizens were made, which serve 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, thus 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 these aimed solely to prevent 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
In keeping with what was stated in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to lift various legal barriers that restricted the people, such as allowing free access to hotels and car rentals, or permitting the unrestricted sale of cell phones. During 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 nearly 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 deemed the worst natural disaster in its history. As a result, there was a widespread shortage of food across the country and the implementation of strict measures to control any attempts 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 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. That same year, the salary cap was eliminated, multi-employment was authorized, and performance-based pay was reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' cafeterias, another form of subsidization in the country, began to close down, and instead, workers were given an additional amount of 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 there have been some technical issues due to the U.S. embargo that 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 Cuban Communist Party, announced that the ration book would be eliminated, 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 operation of 178 private activities, with the aim of transitioning 1 million workers from bureaucratic jobs to productive ones, 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 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 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 provisional president of Cuba, announced that the Cuban government was willing to start conversations with the United States in order to end the diplomatic restrictions between both 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 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 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 da Bahia. The framework 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 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). They have four children from this marriage: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.
