Raúl Castro, the last great symbol of the Cuban Revolution in the crosshairs of the United States
Revolutionary combatant, military leader, successor to Fidel and protagonist of the thaw with Obama: this was Raúl Castro's career
With the indictment of Raúl Castro, the United States places under its sights the most important figure of the Cuban regime in recent decades.
The man who was a combatant of the Revolution, Minister of the Armed Forces for almost half a century, successor to his brother Fidel and architect of the greatest reforms of the communist regime, now faces, at 94 years old, a judicial process in the neighboring country with unforeseeable consequences.
The United States justice system attributes a central role to him in the downing of two small planes belonging to the exiled organization Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996, an episode that left four dead and opened one of the biggest crises in relations between Cuba and the United States.
Raúl Castro faces four counts of murder, as well as conspiracy to kill US citizens and destruction of aircraft, acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche announced this Wednesday from Miami.
Crucial figure
The case acquires great significance, not only because of the precedent of the capture of Nicolás Maduro last January, but also because of the central role of Army General Raúl Castro in the contemporary history of Cuba.
Always in the shadow of his brother Fidel, he was a crucial figure within the regime's military and intelligence apparatus until he formally assumed power in 2008 and governed the country for a decade.
Although he bequeathed the presidency to Miguel Díaz-Canel in 2018, and three years later the leadership of the Communist Party, analysts believe that he remains the most powerful man in the Cuban power structure.
His possible prosecution also comes at one of the most delicate moments for the island in decades.
Cuba is going through an extreme economic and energy crisis, with blackouts, fuel shortages, aggravated by pressure measures from the Donald Trump government in the United States.
On the other hand, US and Cuban authorities, including figures close to Raúl Castro, have held discreet meetings in Havana to address the uncertain future of the island.
The nonagenarian leader stands out for having maintained a traditional family life, unlike his brother Fidel, known for his numerous, varied and secret love relationships.
Raúl Castro was married to Vilma Espín, a prominent revolutionary whom he met in the guerrilla that overthrew the Batista regime and who died of cancer in 2007.
The couple had four children, among whom Mariela Castro Espín —deputy of the National Assembly of People's Power and Director of the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX)— and Alejandro Castro Espín, director of intelligence and counterintelligence of State Security, stand out.
Faced with the widespread revolutionary iconography of Fidel and Che, Raúl Castro cultivated a grayer, pragmatic and military image without monopolizing a massive cult of personality.
Despite this, it is common to see his portrait hanging on the wall—almost always next to Fidel's—in the offices of Cuban public organizations.
We analyze who Raúl Castro is and his crucial relevance in the history and present of Cuba.
The president of the reforms and the thaw (2008-2018)
Although he participated from a very young age in the revolutionary struggle alongside Fidel and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and for decades played a key role within the Cuban military apparatus, Raúl Castro reached his greatest prominence after assuming power between 2006 and 2008.
He provisionally inherited the presidency in 2006, after his brother became seriously ill, and two years later he was officially appointed president of Cuba.
Unlike the charismatic and ideological style of Fidel Castro, the youngest of the brothers projected a more pragmatic image and less given to grandiose speeches.
During his mandate he promoted economic reforms that, although very limited, were the largest since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
His government expanded the space for small private businesses, authorized the sale and purchase of homes and automobiles, relaxed some immigration restrictions and promoted timid openings to the market.
It also reduced part of the enormous Cuban state apparatus and encouraged new forms of self-employment.
However, the reforms coexisted with the continuity of the single-party political system established after the 1959 revolution.
With Raúl Castro at the helm, international human rights organizations continued to denounce the lack of freedom of expression and civil and political rights, as well as repression of opponents.
The most significant moment of his presidency came in 2014, when he announced, together with then-US President Barack Obama, the beginning of the historic diplomatic thaw between Cuba and the United States after more than half a century of hostility.
That historic rapprochement allowed the reopening of embassies, the increase in travel and contacts between both countries and Obama's visit to Havana in 2016, an unprecedented event since the 1959 Revolution.
When Fidel Castro died in 2016, Raúl led the official farewell to the Cuban leader: he announced his death on television, organized the state funeral and promised to defend the continuity of the socialist system.
Regarding the thaw, many of the expectations of economic and political opening were limited and part of the process began to be reversed with the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House in 2017, a year before the transfer of power from Castro to Díaz-Canel.
The fighting companion of Fidel and Che
Raúl Castro was born on June 3, 1931 in Birán, in the eastern region of Cuba, into a wealthy family formed by the Galician immigrant Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz.
Like his brother Fidel, he studied in religious schools in Santiago de Cuba before moving to Havana to continue his secondary and university education.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s he was linked to protest movements against the governments of Carlos Prío Socarrás and later against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-58).
Unlike Fidel Castro, whose political formation was initially more linked to Cuban nationalism, Raúl soon developed sympathies towards Soviet socialism.
He joined the Youth of the Popular Socialist Party and participated in youth meetings organized in Eastern Europe, experiences that decisively influenced his political vision, according to historians and close sources.
His final entry into the revolutionary struggle occurred in 1953, when he joined the armed movement led by Fidel Castro against Batista.
At just 22 years old, Raúl participated in the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, a failed operation that, despite ending with dozens of deaths and the imprisonment of the Castro brothers, would later become one of the main founding myths of the Cuban Revolution.
After benefiting from an amnesty in 1956, Raúl left with Fidel for Mexico, where he participated in the preparation of the Granma yacht expedition along with other exiles and the Argentine Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
The Granma landing in Cuba marked the beginning of the Sierra Maestra guerrilla that would culminate with the fall of Batista and the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.
The general in the shadow of Fidel
Raúl Castro quickly became one of the most powerful figures in the new regime led by his brother Fidel since 1959.
That same year he was appointed Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, a position he would hold for almost half a century and from which he consolidated one of the most solid military and intelligence apparatuses in Latin America.
Experts point to him as the man in charge at that time of guaranteeing the internal stability of the system and being Fidel Castro's right-hand man.
Unlike his brother's international projection and charismatic leadership, Raúl maintained a more discreet profile, focused on the control of the Armed Forces and the organization of the State.
In the first decades of the new system it played a crucial role, according to experts, in strengthening the alliance with the Soviet Union and building the Cuban political model inspired by the socialist regimes of the Eastern bloc.
He was also pointed out for years by exiles and human rights organizations as one of the toughest figures, who did not hesitate when it came to repressing or eliminating those he considered enemies of the Revolution.
With Raúl Castro at the head of the Armed Forces, on February 24, 1996, Cuban fighters shot down two small planes belonging to the exiled organization Brothers to the Rescue, which were flying over waters near Cuba to help rafters fleeing by sea to the United States.
The military attack on the planes caused the death of four people.
While the Cuban government alleged that they had violated the island's airspace, international investigations concluded that they were shot down in international skies, causing a serious diplomatic crisis between Cuba and the United States.
The indictment now announced by Washington revolves precisely around that episode.
Historical recordings revealed years ago by American media record the voice of Raúl Castro apparently ordering action against the aircraft, including phrases such as “shoot down the planes.”
These tests could be crucial in the process.
His power after retirement
Although in 2018 he formally handed over the presidency to Miguel Díaz-Canel, the youngest Castro remained first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, the most powerful position within the regime.
When he also bequeathed this position to Díaz-Canel in 2021, the Cuban authorities presented it as the symbolic closing of the historic generation of the Revolution that had governed the country since 1959.
However, experts maintain that Raúl has continued to exercise enormous influence over the state's strategic decisions, especially in military and security matters and relations with the United States.
After his official retirement, he continued to appear at key events of the regime, such as military parades or revolutionary commemorations, generally alongside Díaz-Canel and the leadership of the single party.
On July 11, 2021, the largest anti-government demonstrations in more than six decades took place on the island, to which the regime responded with thousands of arrests and imprisonments.
Although Díaz-Canel publicly led the official response, the security and political control structures that Raúl Castro controlled for decades played, according to experts, a decisive role.
Meanwhile, Cuba was entering its biggest crisis since the Special Period of the 1990s.
The tightening of US sanctions under Donald Trump, the economic impact of the pandemic, the drop in tourism and the energy crisis aggravated the economic and social deterioration that the island had already suffered for decades and caused a mass exodus in which the island lost up to 20% of its population, according to estimates.
Meanwhile, Raúl Castro's family environment has stood out as one of the main centers of influence in Cuba: his grandson and bodyguard Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “El Cangrejo”, was mentioned by US media as one of the interlocutors in the recent and discreet contacts between Washington and Havana.
Castro's last public appearance to date was in the traditional May 1 parade where, dressed in his military uniform, he accompanied Díaz-Canel and other figures of the Cuban regime.