Raul Castro, the younger brother of the late Fidel Castro, resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most powerful position in Cuba, in 2021, marking the end of the nearly 60-year-old Castro regime.
The mantle was passed on to Miguel Díaz-Canel. But for many Cubans, Mr. Raúl continues to wield what is seen as a kind of “shadow power” to assert his continued presence and influence in the country’s politics.
During his farewell at the closing ceremony of the 8th Cuban Communist Party Congress in April 2021, the army general warned that he was ready to “step into the stirrups” and defend socialist Cuba as long as he lived.
Over the next few years, Raul continued to occasionally participate in major events celebrating the victory of the Cuban Revolution. He hosted several presidents and political leaders of his allies at the National Palace.
“The party is just a façade. Díaz-Canel has no power at all. The power lies with Raúl and the military, who not only have the cannons but also the bank accounts,” said Sebastian Arcos, director of the Cuba Institute at Florida International University.
Before stepping down as party first secretary, Raul said he would do so “with the satisfaction of having fulfilled my duties” and was confident in the country’s future.
Today, its future is increasingly uncertain. US President Donald Trump halted oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba after ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was detained in January. President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on other countries that sell oil to Cuba, sparking Cuba’s worst energy crisis in recent history.
On March 13, President Díaz-Canel acknowledged in a press conference that he and Raúl had led talks with the US government to find a solution to the embargo on the island.
But this week it emerged that the U.S. Department of Justice is working to secure criminal charges against Raul, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
The scope of the investigation is unclear, but federal prosecutors are looking into a number of potential charges, including one related to the 1996 shootdown by the Cuban military of two planes belonging to the Cuban-American exile group Brothers to the Rescue.
Raul, Fidel’s Shadow
While Fidel was presented as a charismatic leader, Raul was seen as more disciplined and thoughtful.
In his book Raúl Castro: In Fidel’s Shadow, Lisette Bustamante, a Cuban journalist and author living in exile in Miami, recalls asking a retired soldier in 1986 what would happen if Fidel died. Raul replied that nothing would be the same that day, everything would be different.
Born on June 3, 1931 in Biran, Holguin Department, eastern Cuba. Raul was the youngest of seven children, including Fidel, who led the victory in the Cuban revolution of January 1, 1959, an event that marked the end of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
He followed in Fidel’s footsteps from an early age. Although they had very different personalities, they were united by politics and the idea of transforming Cuba, which in the 1950s had experienced economic growth, strong ties to the United States, and deep social inequality.
Juana Castro, who died in exile in Miami, revealed in her book “Fidel and Raul, My Brothers: A Secret Story” the close relationship between the two brothers that transcended blood ties.
“They talked for hours, and Raul, the youngest, listened with great attention, barely blinking, as Fidel talked about politics,” she writes.
The two shared some of the key moments leading up to the rebellion’s victory. It was the attack on the Moncada barracks (both men were sentenced to two years in prison) and their subsequent exile to Mexico. Then came the Granma Yacht Expedition, which would later include Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.
Finally, in the Sierra Maestra, Fidel entrusted his brother Raul with command of the “Second Eastern Front.” This guerrilla organization played a decisive role in overthrowing Batista, who left the country on January 1, 1959.
Three weeks later, Fidel publicly announced that Raul would be his successor in case he “had to die in this struggle.” Because, as he said, he had enough qualities to replace Raul.
During the first years of the revolution, he was appointed to several important positions, including Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, where he reached the rank of army general, the highest position in the military establishment.
Arcos points out that Raúl was undervalued throughout his life because he lived in the shadow of Fidel, the public face of the regime. “He was more timid and kept a low profile.” In fact, he was the main liaison with the Soviet Union.
Raul established himself as the most powerful man on the island after Fidel.
“Cuba has always had two heads. One is more prominent than Fidel, but the other has always been there from the beginning,” Arcos said, crediting them with allowing the regime to survive after the collapse of its main economic ally, the Soviet Union, in 1991.
He added that when Fidel had to transfer power in July 2006 for health reasons, the transition was smooth. “In general, in totalitarian regimes there are always conflicts and internal tensions. That didn’t happen in Cuba.”
On February 24, 2008, Raul was elected president by the National Assembly after Fidel resigned as President of the Council of State and “Commander in Chief”. In 2011, the Cuban Communist Party, Cuba’s highest political body and only legal political party, recognized him for the position.
From that position, he promoted reforms within the Communist Party, including limiting political and state positions to two consecutive five-year terms, with the aim of promoting generational change in the leadership that had previously been under Castro’s control.
Although the measure was considered historic by some, it fell short for those calling for deeper political change.
Under his administration, several economic reforms were also implemented that gave space to the private sector within the highly centralized system, including self-employment, known as “cuentapropista,” which allowed many Cubans to work independently.
While Cuba’s initial reforms progressed, Havana and Washington began diplomatic relations after a half-century of conflict.
On July 1, 2015, then-US President Barack Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington and the reopening of embassies in both cities.
Eight months later, President Obama visited the island to meet with Raul and formalize a series of agreements that included the resumption of direct commercial flights, cruise travel between the United States and the island, and a gradual expansion of commercial exchanges.
During the meeting, Raúl called for the lifting of the embargo, while the United States, which also met with Cuban opposition figures, called for progress in human rights and freedom of expression.
But those agreements faded over time, Arcos said. “For the regime, opening up the economy, liberalizing markets and allowing private property is suicidal. For Raúl Castro, it is an abomination.”
Ricardo Pasco Pearce, Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba, has a different interpretation: “Raúl’s proposal was to open up the economy but maintain political control. But Fidel rejected it not for ideological reasons, but because he was furious that it was his brother, not him, who would be the one to reach an agreement with the United States.”
Mr. Fidel, who did not meet with the U.S. president at the time, did not share the optimism that the trip generated among many Cubans.
“We don’t need the empire to give us anything,” Fidel wrote in an editorial titled “Brother Obama” in the PCC’s official newspaper, Granma, days after Obama met with his brother in Havana.
“Mr. Obama thought that changing the U.S. policy toward Cuba would solve the problem on the island, but he was wrong. Self-employment was legalized in 2010 and continued until 2014, when talks with President Obama began,” Arcos said.
However, according to Cuban political scientist Sebastian Arcos, starting in 2015 Raúl began concentrating economic power in the hands of the military through the GAESA group.
Today, the Business Administration Group (GAESA), a conglomerate founded in 1995 and controlled by Raul and the military, covers everything from hotels, stores and product sales to customs and ports across the island.
The Trump administration increased pressure on Cuba this year by imposing new sanctions on GAESA.
“These sanctions are part of the Trump Administration’s broader campaign to confront the national security threat posed by Cuba’s communist regime and to hold accountable that regime and those who provide it with financial and material support,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an announcement.
Raúl is a key figure in the current negotiations between Washington and Havana.
Cuba’s government said Thursday it would “gladly listen” to an offer from the United States for $100 million in humanitarian aid, but stressed it did not have specific details about the State Department’s proposal.
Pasco believes Raúl may be open to a deal similar to the one he reached with Obama in 2016, but points out that Trump and Rubio want not just economic opening, but also changes in Cuba’s political system.
“That’s the big problem at the moment,” he concluded.
