Raul Castro, now 90 years old and “retired” from Cuban political life

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former Cuban President Raul Castro turns 90 on Thursday, June 3, a few weeks after retiring from political life. However, he still has a voice and vote in the “strategic decisions of the country”, on which he will continue to be consulted by the new leadership.

The youngest of the Castro family, who came to power on an interim basis in 2006 due to the illness of his brother Fidel and officially in 2008, transferred last April to President Miguel Díaz-Canel the position of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal party) during the VIII Congress of the party.

It was a succession that Raúl Castro himself had already announced in 2018, when he left the presidency in the hands of Díaz-Canel, to ensure the continuity of the socialist system of a single party and centralized economy.

The last public appearance of the former president was at the 8th Conclave of Cuban Communists, where he was seen in apparently good physical condition, in contrast to the constant speculations about his state of health that regularly circulate on social networks.

The now nonagenarian general maintains his political influence after the generational handover consummated in the VIII Congress, a fact that Diaz-Canel reiterated this Thursday in an article in the official newspaper “Granma” in which he praises the trajectory of his mentor.

CONGRATULATIONS FROM RUSSIA AND VENEZUELA

Granma the official organ of the PCC, also dedicated a special supplement to the 90th birthday of the former president, an initiative replicated in other state-owned media.

On Twitter, leaders such as Díaz-Canel himself or the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, congratulated Raúl Castro, whom they described as a “reference of Cuban communists”, while highlighting the “colossal” work undertaken by him in recent years.

General Castro also received congratulations from the leaders of allied countries, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

During his ten years as head of state, General Castro reduced his public appearances and speeches compared to his brother and predecessor, Fidel Castro, notable for his hourly interventions.

THE “RAULIST” REFORMS

During his term, he implemented a series of economic reforms to “update” the island’s economic and social model. A decade after being implemented is still insufficient, according to economists familiar with the Cuban reality.

The 2011 package of “raulist” measures expanded the possibilities of private enterprise (named by the State as “non-state sector” and popularly as “cuentapropismo”), promoted new rules to attract foreign investment, and eliminated prohibitions and permits such as the one needed by Cubans to leave the island.

On the external front, he expanded ties with Cuba’s allies – Venezuela, Russia, Iran -, strengthened ties with China, Vietnam, and North Korea, and sought to “reinsert” Cuba into the Latin American scenario as its natural space.

A BRIEF THAW

In 2015, Raúl Castro led, together with the President of the United States, Barack Obama, the normalization of relations with that country baptized as “thaw”.

The rapprochement was sealed with the reopening of embassies in both capitals, Obama’s visit to Cuba in 2016 (the first by a U.S. president since 1928), and measures to boost academic exchanges and U.S. travel to the island.

However, the Republican administration of Donald Trump that succeeded Obama reversed the advances, froze relations, and strengthened economic sanctions.

This, together with the slow implementation of the economic reforms announced by Castro in 2011 and the coronavirus pandemic, has aggravated the economic crisis in the country, reflected in the shortage of necessities and food.