When Raúl Castro , the brother of the late Fidel Castro, resigned in 2021 as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the highest position of power on the island, it marked the end of almost six decades Castro rule.
The mantle was passed to Miguel Diaz-Canel. But for many Cubans , Raúl has continued to exercise what they consider a kind of “power in the shadows,” as they claim his presence and influence in the country’s politics remain ever-present.
During his farewell at the closing of the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in April 2021, the army general warned that, as long as he lived, he would be ready, “with his foot in the stirrup,” to defend socialist Cuba.
In the following years, Raúl continued to participate, on occasion, in central events celebrating the triumph of the Cuban revolution. He even received some presidents and political leaders from allied countries at the National Palace.
“The party is just a façade. Diaz-Canel has no power at all; the power lies with Raúl and the Armed Forces who, besides having the cannons, have the bank accounts,” says Sebastián Arcos, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
Before leaving his post as first secretary of the party, Raúl said he was leaving “with the satisfaction of duty fulfilled” and that he had confidence in the country’s future.
Today, that future is increasingly uncertain. After the January capture of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, US President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on other countries that sold crude oil to Cuba, provoking on the island the worst energy crisis in its recent history.
On March 13, President Diaz-Canel confirmed at a press conference that the talks held with the United States government to seek a solution to the embargo imposed on the island had been led by Raúl and himself.
But this week, it emerged that US Justice Department is working to secure criminal charges against Raul, sources familiar with the matter told CNN .
While the scope of the investigation is unclear, federal prosecutors have examined a number of possible charges, including some related to the Cuban military’s 1996 downing of two planes belonging to the Cuban-American exile organization Brothers to the Rescue.
While Fidel was presented as a charismatic leader, Raúl was seen as more disciplined and discreet.
Cuban journalist and writer Lissette Bustamante, exiled in Miami, recounts in her book “Raúl Castro: In the Shadow of Fidel” that, in 1986, she asked the now-retired military man what would happen when Fidel died. Raúl replied that nothing would be the same that day and that everything would be different.
Born on June 3, 1931, in Birán, in the province of Holguín, in eastern Cuba. Raul is the youngest of seven siblings, among them Fidel , who led the triumph of the Cuban revolution on January 1, 1959, an event that marked the end of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship.
From a young age, he followed in Fidel’s footsteps. Although both had very different personalities, they were united by politics and the idea of transforming Cuba, which in the 1950s had a growing economy, a strong bond with the US, and deep social inequalities.
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Juana Castro, who died in exile in Miami, reveals in her book “Fidel and Raul, My Brothers: The Secret Story,” the close relationship between the two brothers, which transcended blood ties.
“They would talk for hours, and Raúl, the youngest, would listen with enormous attention, almost without blinking, to the political talks that Fidel gave him,” she wrote.
The two shared some of the key moments prior to the insurrectional victory: the assault on the Moncada barracks — for which they served two years in prison — and the subsequent exile in Mexico. Then came the Granma Yacht expedition, to which Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos would later join.
Finally, in the Sierra Maestra, Fidel entrusted his brother Raúl with the command of the “Second Eastern Front,” a guerrilla structure whose role was decisive in overthrowing Batista, who left the country on January 1, 1959.
Three weeks later, Fidel publicly announced that Raúl would be his successor in case he “had to die in this struggle” because — as he said — he had sufficient qualities to replace him.
During the first years of the revolution, he appointed him to several important positions, among them, minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, where he reached the rank of army general, the highest rank in the military institution.
Arcos points out that Raúl was underestimated throughout his life for being in the shadow of Fidel, the public face of the regime. “He was more timid, less visible.” He was, in fact, the main liaison with the Soviet Union.
Raúl consolidated himself as the figure with the most power on the island after Fidel.
“Cuba always had two heads: one more visible, Fidel; but the other was always there from the beginning,” notes Arcos, who believes that this duo allowed the regime to survive even the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, its main economic ally.
He adds that when Fidel had to transfer power for health reasons in July 2006, the transition was smooth. “Generally, in a totalitarian regime there are always clashes or internal tensions. In Cuba, that did not happen.”
On February 24, 2008, Raúl was elected president of the country by the National Assembly, after Fidel resigned from his positions as president of the Council of State and “Commander in Chief.” In 2011, the Communist Party of Cuba, the country’s highest political body and the only legal party, ratified him in the position.
From that position,he promoted some reforms within the Communist Party, such as limiting the time in political and state positions to two consecutive five-year terms, with the aim of promoting a generational change in leadership, which until then had been under the control of the Castros.
The measures were considered historic by some, although for those demanding deeper political changes, they were insufficient.
During his government, some economic reforms were also implemented that opened spaces for the private sector in a highly centralized system, among them, self-employment, known as “cuentapropistas,” which allowed many Cubans to work independently.
While the incipient reforms in Cuba advanced, Havana and Washington began diplomatic relations after half a century of confrontation.
On July 1, 2015, then US President Barack Obama announced the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington and the reopening of embassies in both cities.
Eight months later, Obama visited the island to meet with Raúl and formalize a series of agreements that included the resumption of direct commercial flights, cruise trips between the United States and the island, and a gradual increase in commercial exchanges, among others.
During that meeting, Raúl demanded the lifting of the embargo, while his American counterpart, who also met with figures from the Cuban dissidence, called for progress in human rights and freedom of expression.
However, according to Arcos, those agreements faded over time. “For the regime, opening its economy, liberalizing the market, and allowing private property would be suicide. For Raúl Castro, that is anathema.”
Ricardo Pascoe Pierce, who served as Mexico ambassador to Cuba, holds another version: “Raúl’s proposal was to open the economy, but maintain political control. But Fidel rejected it not for ideological reasons, but because he was furious that it was his brother and not him who would have achieved an agreement with the United States.”
Fidel, who did not meet with the then American president, did not share the optimism that the visit had generated among many Cubans.
“We do not need the empire to give us anything,” wrote Fidel, in an editorial titled: “Brother Obama,” published in the newspaper Granma, the official organ of the PCC, several days after Obama’s meeting with his brother in Havana.
“Obama thought that by changing the United States’ policy toward Cuba, the island’s problem would be solved, and he was mistaken. Self-employment was legalized in 2010 and progressed until 2014, when the opening with Obama took place,” Arcos said.
However, according to Cuban political scientist Sebastián Arcos, starting in 2015, Raúl began to concentrate economic power in the hands of the military through the GAESA group.
Currently, the Business Administration Group (GAESA), a conglomerate created in 1995 and controlled by Raúl and the army, covers everything from hotels, stores, and product sales to customs and ports throughout the Island.
The Trump administration this year increased pressure on Cuba by imposing new sanctions against GAESA.
“These sanctions are part of the Trump administration’s broad campaign to confront the threats to national security posed by the communist regime in Cuba and to hold that regime and those who provide it with financial and material support accountable,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated when making the announcement.
Raúl is a key figure in current negotiations between Washington and Havana.
On Thursday, the Cuban government said it is “willing to listen” to the offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid made by the US, although it emphasized that it does not have specific details about the State Department’s proposal.
Former Ambassador Pascoe believes that Raúl could accept an agreement similar to the one reached with Obama in 2016, but notes that Trump and Rubio are not only seeking economic opening, but also a change in the Cuban political system.
“That is the big problem at this moment,” he concludes.
