Raúl Castro
President of Cuba
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 February 2008 Acting: 31 July 2006
Vice President First Vice President:
José Ramón Machado Ventura
Other Vice Presidents:
Julio Casas Regueiro
Esteban Lazo
Abelardo Colomé
Preceded by Fidel Castro
First Vice President of Cuba
In office
2 December 1976 – 24 February 2008
President Fidel Castro
Preceded by Office created
Succeeded by José Machado Ventura
Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement
In office
16 September 2006 – 16 July 2009
Acting: 16 September 2006 – 24 February 2008
Preceded by Fidel Castro
Succeeded by Hosni Mubarak
Born 3 June 1931 (age 78) Birán, Cuba
Political party Communist Party
Spouse(s) Vilma Espín (1959 – 2007)
Children Deborah Castro-Espín
Mariela Castro-Espín
Nilsa Castro-Espín
Alejandro Castro-Espín
Brigadier-General (retired) Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz[1] (born 3 June 1931) is the President of the Cuban Council of State[2][3] and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba. The younger brother of Fidel Castro, he is also Second Secretary of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), and Commander in Chief (Maximum General) of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force).
On 31 July 2006, Raúl Castro assumed the duties of President of the Council of State in a temporary transfer of power due to Fidel Castro’s illness. According to the Cuban Constitution of 1976, Article 94, the First Vice President of the Council of State assumes presidential duties upon the illness or death of the president.
Raúl Castro was elected President at the 24 February 2008 National Assembly as Fidel Castro had announced his intention not to stand for President again on February 19, 2008.[2][4]
Pre–1959
Son of Galician immigrant Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz, a Cuban woman of Galician ancestry, Raúl is the youngest of the three Castro brothers. He also has four sisters, Angela, Juanita, Enma, and Agustina, and two half siblings, Lidia and Pedro Emilio, who were raised by Ángel Castro’s first wife. Persistent rumors supported by former CIA analyst Brian Latell are taken to suggest that Batista army loyalist Felipe Miraval, nicknamed “el Chino” is Raúl’s, but not Fidel’s, father.[5] As youngsters, the Castro brothers were expelled from the first school they attended. Like Fidel, Raúl later attended the Jesuit School of Colegio Dolores in Santiago and Colegio Belén in Havana. Raúl, as an undergraduate, studied social sciences. Whereas Fidel excelled as a student, Raúl’s performance was mostly mediocre.[6] Raúl was a committed socialist and joined the Socialist Youth, an affiliate of the Soviet-oriented Cuban Communist Party, Partido Socialista Popular (PSP).[7] The brothers participated actively in sometimes violent student actions.[8] In 1953, Raúl was a member of the 26th of July Movement that attacked the Moncada Barracks, and he spent 22 months in prison as a result of this action.[9] During his exile in Mexico, he participated in the preparations of the expedition of the boat Granma, embarking for Cuba on 2 December 1956.
It was during the period in Mexico that Raúl reportedly befriended Ernesto “Che” Guevara in Mexico City and brought him into Fidel’s circle of revolutionaries. Raúl also established contact with Soviet KGB agent Nikolai Leonov, whom he had met two years earlier during a trip to the Soviet-bloc nations. That relationship would persist until the Castro brothers successfully assumed power in Cuba.[7]
A Commander in the Cuban Revolution
Raúl was one of the few survivors of the Granma landing. He was part of the tiny group of survivors who managed to reach a safe haven in the Sierra Maestra mountains (see the Cuban Revolution). As Fidel’s brother and trusted right-hand man, and given his proven leadership abilities during and after the Moncada attack, he was given progressively bigger commands. On February 27, 1958, Raúl was made comandante and assigned the mission to cross the old province of Oriente leading a column of guerrillas to open, to the northeast of that territory, the “Frank País Eastern Front.”
As a result of Raúl’s “Eastern Front” operations he was not involved in the pivotal Operation Verano (which came close to destroying the main body of fighters but ended up a spectacular victory for Fidel). However, Raúl’s forces remained active and grew over time. By October 1958, after being reinforced by Fidel, the two brothers had about 2,000 fighters and they were operating freely throughout Oriente province. In December, while Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos were operating around Santa Clara, Fidel and Raúl’s army laid siege to Maffo (capturing it on December 30). Their victorious army then headed to Santiago de Cuba, the capital of Oriente province.
In response to the victory by Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara, the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba in the early morning of 1 January 1959.[10] The two Castro brothers with their army arrived on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba and said their forces would storm the city at 6 PM January 1 if it did not first surrender. The commander (Colonel Rego Rubido) surrendered Santiago de Cuba without a fight. The war was over and Fidel was able to take power in Havana when he arrived on 6 January 1959.
Raúl’s abilities as a military leader during the revolution are hard to see clearly. Unlike Che Guevara or Cienfuegos, Raúl had no significant victories he could claim credit for on his own. The last operations (which were clearly successful) were conducted with his older brother Fidel present (and in command).[11]
After Batista’s fall, Raúl was responsible for overseeing the summary execution of “scores” of soldiers loyal to deposed president Fulgencio Batista.[12]
