Raúl Castro

President of Cuba (2008–18)

• Born: June 3, 1931
• Place of Birth: Birán, Cuba

On February 24, 2008, Raúl Castro was elected president of Cuba during a session of the National Assembly, and he served in this position until April 2018. Castro initially took over the presidential duties of the Cuban Council of State on July 31, 2006, after his older brother, Fidel Castro, became ill and required surgery. The position became permanent when Fidel Castro determined that he was no longer well enough to rule.

In addition to his presidential duties, Raúl Castro served as the commander in chief of the armed forces. He is regarded as less charismatic than his brother, who ruled over the communist island nation for nearly fifty years following the Cuban Revolution of 1959. At the same time, he is considered more moderate than his older brother, and he implemented a number of reforms intended to modernize Cuba's economy and improve the quality of life of Cubans.

Background

Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz was born on June 3, 1931, in Birán, a village in Cuba's Holguín Province. He was the youngest of seven children, following older brothers Fidel and Ramón and older sisters Angela, Juanita, Emma, and Agustina. His father was a Galician immigrant named Ángel Castro, a successful sugar farmer; his mother, Lina Ruz, was Ángel's second wife, a household servant of Galician descent.

Castro attended the Colegio Dolores, a Jesuit school in Santiago, and later studied social sciences at El Colegio de Belen, a Jesuit college in Havana. While studying in Havana, Castro became involved with Socialist Youth, a youth branch of the Partido Socialista Popular (PSP). Castro became increasingly committed to socialism throughout the 1950s. Of the three Castro brothers, Raúl Castro is considered to have been the most radically socialist, while Fidel Castro was initially more drawn to nationalism. In 1953, the Castro brothers led a failed coup attempt against Cuba's military dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Both Raúl and Fidel Castro served twenty-two months in jail for their attempted attack on the Moncada barracks, widely considered to be the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, which would eventually overthrow Batista and bring Cuba's communist regime to power.

Following his release from prison, Raúl Castro befriended Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto "Ché" Guevara and introduced him to his older brother. Guevara joined the Cuban revolutionaries in 1956 and served with the Castro brothers throughout the revolution. Raúl Castro is also responsible for making the acquaintance of Nikolai Sergeyevich Leonov, a senior member of the Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB); he introduced Guevara to Leonov, who acquainted the young revolutionaries with communist and Marxist doctrines. Guevara and Leonov were key participants in the guerilla-led revolution that successfully defeated Batista's troops and installed Fidel Castro's regime in 1959.

Communist Cuba

Fidel Castro's rule of Cuba drew both praise and condemnation from the international community. Cuba attained one of the highest literacy rates in the world, with all education funded by the government. Health care is also sponsored by the Cuban state, and in 2008, Cuba boasted over 6,500 doctors, including a high percentage of female doctors. Additionally, according to the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) 2008 infant mortality rate report, Cuba ranked better than the United States in infant survival. Cuba has also contributed doctors and aid to countries around the world and has one of the lowest HIV/AIDS rates in the world.

Yet despite its progressive social programs, Cuba has been accused of violating human rights. Political dissidents are regularly imprisoned and exposed to harsh treatment and even torture. While his brother was in the international spotlight as a communist dictator and revolutionary hero, Raúl Castro led Cuba's armed forces for over five decades, gaining a reputation for his ruthlessness. Some historians have suggested that it was Raúl Castro's military leadership that ensured the communist regime's survival in Cuba for more than five decades.

When the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s, vital import subsidies and aid to Cuba were cut, and the island nation faced severe food shortages. Due to trade embargoes imposed by the United States and other Western countries that increased the cost of pesticides and farming equipment, Cubans were forced to switch from modern agricultural processing to organic farming nearly overnight. It was Raúl Castro's initiative to use military forces to implement agricultural reforms that kept the country supplied with food. Raúl Castro sent soldiers out as farmers, trained them in business management, and engaged them in the promotion and management of Cuba's prosperous tourism industry.

Presidency

After his inauguration as president, Raúl Castro vowed that Cuba's government would continue on the path set by Fidel Castro during his forty-nine years in power. He also promised to consult Fidel Castro on all major decisions, having long been the enforcer of his brother's plans. However, Raúl Castro was considered to be more willing to listen to his political advisers and more consensus minded in his decision-making process. It was said that he would be more likely to delegate more of his authority, granting more power to local governments on the island.

Under the youngest Castro brother, Cuba initially saw some mild reforms. Raúl Castro stated that in order to survive, Cuba needed to adapt and modernize, and he prioritized improving the productivity of Cuba's state-run economy. Many analysts believed Raúl Castro was likely to open up the country's economy to something similar to the economy of communist China, easing some regulations on private enterprise and allowing market-driven initiatives and foreign investors into the country. He gradually revalued the Cuban peso, which had become nearly worthless. This reform came as a great relief to many Cubans, as 90 percent of Cuba's population is employed by the state and is paid in Cuban pesos. Other changes Castro implemented in the country included abolishing the limits on salaries of state employees. Castro also advocated reforms to the tax system in Cuba as part of his plan to modernize the economy.

Cuba relies on imports for half of its basic foodstuffs and half its oil. The Cuban government manages the distribution of foodstuffs through the use of ration cards. Observers noted that rations had grown slimmer over the years and that Cuba was under threat of a food crisis. As a way of countering the inflating prices of imported food, Castro increased food production in Cuba in order to make the island more self-sufficient. In July 2008, Castro granted more land to farmers and agricultural co-operatives, and allowed the private purchase of farm equipment.

Additionally, Raúl Castro allowed Cubans to purchase personal computers and cell phones, a much-welcomed change in a country where the media and communications were censored for decades. In June 2008, the European Union (EU) lifted sanctions against Cuba on the condition that Cuba improve its human-rights record.

Canada and many European and South American countries continued to maintain positive relations with Cuba, despite the US embargo against the country. While many interpreted the aging of the Castro brothers (Fidel Castro died in 2016) as signaling the end of communism in Cuba, the gravitation of a number of South American countries toward socialism made this prospect debatable. In fact, Cuba received financial support from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and the socialist alliance between Venezuela, Cuba, and Ecuador had grown stronger since the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Castro met with Ivan Melnikov, vice president of the Russian Federation, in May 2010. On April 19, 2011, he was formally elected Cuba's first secretary of the Communist Party, succeeding his brother Fidel. After significantly lifting travel restrictions for Cubans in 2012, he was reelected for a second term as president in 2013. Upon his reelection, he announced that he would not seek a third term.

In December 2014, Castro and US President Barack Obama both announced their shared intention to begin normalizing relations between Cuba and the United States. Two years later, he welcomed Obama to Cuba as the first US president to visit the country in decades, and the two leaders held a joint press conference.

Noted for improving the country's private sector throughout his tenure, Castro ultimately stepped down from the presidency in April 2018, following the National Assembly's election of Miguel Díaz-Canel. While it had been planned for him to leave the position in February, his retirement had been delayed due to the impact of Hurricane Irma. At the same time, he remained the head of the Communist Party, and starting that year, he served as the chair of the commission put together to draft a new constitution for the country, which was approved early in 2019. Overall, he stayed politically active.

After much discussion around when the move would occur, particularly as it would mark the conclusion of the Castro family's lengthy period of power in the country, in April 2021 Raúl Castro also officially relinquished his position as the leader of the Communist Party. As was largely expected, Díaz-Canel was shortly after named his successor. In 2024, Castro helped close Cuba's annual ceremony in honor of the Cuban Revolution. In his speech, he stated that there were no generational contradictions with the Revolution and that the Cuban Revolution's children were free of envy and desire for power.

Personal Life

Raúl Castro married Vilma Espín, a chemical engineer and revolutionary, in January 1959. The couple had three daughters, Déborah, Mariela, and Nilsa, and one son, Alejandro. Espín died in 2007.

Bibliography

Ahmed, Azam. "Raúl Castro Prepares to Resign as Cuba’s President, Closing a Dynasty." The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/world/americas/raul-castro-resigns-cuba-president.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Baker, Peter. "US to Restore Full Relations with Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility." The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Cave, Damien. "Raúl Castro Says His New 5-Year Term as Cuba's President Will Be His Last." The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/world/americas/raul-castro-to-step-down-as-cubas-president-in-2018.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

"Raul Castro Becomes Cuban President." The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/world/americas/24iht-cuba.5.10342397.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024..

"Raul Castro Fast Facts." CNN, 18 Apr. 2021, www.cnn.com/2012/12/13/world/americas/raul-castro---fast-facts/index.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

"Raul Castro Says No Generational Contradictions in Cuba." Havana Times, 3 Jan. 2024, havanatimes.org/features/raul-castro-says-no-generational-contradictions-in-cuba/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.