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 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.
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 School 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, then called the Popular Socialist Party (PSP) with 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 July 26 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 following 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 Eastern Bloc nations. This relationship would continue 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 assigned the mission of crossing the former province of Oriente, leading a column of guerrillas to open the Second Eastern Front "Frank País" (in honor of a leader of the underground movement who was murdered by Batista's forces in Santiago de Cuba) towards the northeast. In that front, Raúl organized and structured a true 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 so forth.
Post-Revolutionary Period (1959-2006)
In 1961, he became part of the National Directorate of Integrated Revolutionary Organizations. After Che Guevara's departure, he became the second political figure of the government. He participated in the leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) in 1963. He was responsible for the investigation, denunciation, and prosecution of 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 the former president of Brazil, 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 in chief 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 and a massive debate initiated by him 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, serving as the foundation for addressing 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 as 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 had the sole purpose of 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, 20081
In keeping with what was expressed in February 2008, Raúl Castro began to lift various legal restrictions that limited the public, such as unrestricted 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 over ten billion in economic losses. The hurricanes dealt a severe blow to the Cuban economy, regarded as the worst natural disaster in its history. As a result, there was a shortage of food across the country and strict measures were implemented to control any attempt at hoarding or speculation of goods and food
Since September 2008, the Cuban government decided to grant usufruct rights to farmers for idle land. 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 years for women and 65 years for men. This year, the salary cap has also been eliminated, multijob employment has been authorized, and performance pay has been reinstated.
Since October 2009, the workers' dining halls, another form of subsidy in the country, were gradually closed, and instead, workers were given an additional 15 pesos per day for their lunch or snack.
In 2009, the Castro government allowed Cubans to access the Internet in the country's post offices, although some technical issues have arisen due to the U.S. embargo, which hinders 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, the director of Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, announced that the ration book would be abolished and food assistance would only be granted to pensioners and individuals with low incomes.
By the end of October 2010, the Cuban government has permitted 178 private activities, with the goal of relocating 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 events 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 very beginning of his provisional government, Raúl Castro started 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 acting 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 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 for initiating such 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 this 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 I Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in the city of Salvador de Bahía. The framework of this summit facilitated Cuba's entry into the Group of Río.
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 beginning of the Cuban Revolution until her passing (June 18, 2007). He has four children from this marriage: Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro.
