Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz

Army General. President of the State and Government Councils of the Republic of Cuba. First Secretary of the PCC. Revolutionary combatant, political leader, statesman and military chief. He holds the honorary title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba.

General de Ejército, Raúl Castro Ruz has made notable contributions as a political leader, statesman and military chief. In this last aspect, the decisive participation stands out at the head of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, in the results achieved in preparing the country for defense and in the practical application of the conception of the War of All the People.

He was born in the town of Birán, Holguín, in what was then the province of Oriente. He completed his primary studies in the city of Santiago de Cuba and later moved to Havana. There he completed Secondary Education and entered the University, where he participated in student struggles against the corrupt government of Carlos Prío Socarrás and the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar.

In 1953 he attended as a delegate to the International Conference on the Defense of the Rights of Youth, which took place in Vienna. He was invited to participate in the Meeting of the International Preparatory Committee of the IV World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest.

He was part of the young people who on July 26, 1953 assaulted the Moncada Barracks, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on which occasion he led the group that took the Palace of Justice in support of the main action commanded by Fidel Castro. For these acts he was sentenced to 13 years in prison and transferred to the Presidio of the Isle of Pines, today Isle of Youth.

On October 12, the Minister of Interior, Ramón Heredia, ordered that the group of revolutionaries condemned for the Moncada events, within which Raúl Castro was found, be transferred to the National Jail of the Isle of Pines. According to the Court's orders they should remain in special facilities, separated from common prisoners. In DC-3 military airplanes, under heavy military custody, they were transferred from the province of Oriente to the Isle of Pines.

He was placed, along with the rest of his companions, in one of the hospital rooms of the prison, separated from common prisoners by a brick wall that was built for that purpose. Shortly after he was allowed to receive one visit per month and some correspondence, which was always severely reviewed and censored.

Like the rest of his companions, he refused to accept the special dinner on December 24, 1953 in protest against the murders committed by the army and rural guard during the Moncada events.

On February 12, 1954, when Fulgencio Batista visited the Prison to inaugurate the power plant of the prison, Raúl Castro, together with his 25 companions sang at the top of their voices the March of July 26. Batista paid attention to the lyrics and visibly displeased only asked who was singing, then quickly abandoned the jail.

For this action they would be severely punished, Fidel Castro, Ramiro Valdés, Ernesto Tizol, Israel Tápanes and Agustín Díaz Cartaya. He and the rest of his companions had the radio apparatus removed from the pavilion and had the delivery of newspapers suspended in addition to being forbidden to communicate with the outside.

Ten times telegrams signed by the Minister of Interior, Ramón Hermida, were received at the Prison ordering the transfer of Raúl to Havana to appear as an accused before the Urgency Court as responsible for a crime against public order in case 412 of 1953. On all occasions the Prison Supervisor alleged different excuses for not complying with the order: false illnesses of Raúl, lack of escorts, lack of passages, among others.

From 1954 and with greater force from 1955 a broad national movement began, which covered almost all political tendencies and classes of the country, in favor of general amnesty that included the Moncadistas. On March 10, 1955, in the midst of official celebrations of the third anniversary of the coup d'état, amnesty bills were presented in both chambers of the Cuban Congress.

On March 29, 1955, Raúl was punished with thirty days of deprivation of communications and visits just like his brother Fidel, for an article by the leader of the July 26 Movement that had appeared in the Bohemia magazine under the title of "Letter on the Amnesty" and that denounced the political maneuver hidden behind the amnesty bills handled by the regime in Congress. Raúl was considered complicit with Fidel in the preparation of the article and the mockery of the prison authorities by getting it to Bohemia.

On May 6, after being approved by both chambers of the Cuban Congress, Fulgencio Batista signed the Amnesty Law that freed all political prisoners, including the assailants of the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks who were serving their sentences at the Isle of Pines prison. Thanks to the amnesty, on May 15, 1955 he was released along with his political prison companions.

Persecution after leaving prison forced him to take refuge in the Mexican Embassy and later to move to that country. In Aztec land he participated in the preparations for the expedition that culminated with the landing of the Granma, on December 2, 1956. After the dispersion that followed Alegría de Pío, he took command of a small group of four expeditionaries until December 18 when he managed to reunite with Fidel at the place known as Cinco Palmas, in Purial de Vicana.

He participated in the Sierra Maestra campaign, and on February 27, 1958, for his merits, he was promoted to Comandante. At that moment he was tasked with crossing the then province of Oriente as head of a column, to open, in the northeast of that territory, the II Oriental Front Frank País, which he directed until the end of the war of liberation.

After the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959 he was designated Military Chief of the province of Oriente. In October of that year, when the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) was created, he was appointed Minister, a position he held until February 24, 2008.

He was part of the National Leadership of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations, and later the National Leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba. In October 1965, when the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was created, he was elected as its Second Secretary, and ratified as such by the II, III, IV and V Congresses of the organization.

He has been a deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power since its formation in 1976, and on December 3 of that year was elected First Vice President of the State and Government Councils, a position he has held since that moment.

On November 15, 1976 he was promoted to the rank of General de Ejército. On February 27, 1998, by agreement of the State Council, on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of his promotion to Comandante of the Rebel Army, he was granted together with the Comandante of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, the honorary title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba and the Maximum Gómez Order of First Degree, in consideration of his long trajectory, his great revolutionary merits and the dedication to duty during these years. He has also received other national and foreign decorations.

Since February 24, 2008 he was elected President of the State and Government Councils of Cuba. In the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in April 2011 he was elected by the membership for the position of First Secretary.

Raúl has directed his administration's efforts toward the improvement of the Socialist model on the Island. Under his administration a series of measures were undertaken aimed at achieving this goal. Among the most important are highlighted:

The struggle for food sovereignty, which Raúl has called a problem of "national security".
The increase and encouragement of self-employment work, as a form of wealth creation and stimulus for the development of productive forces.
The fight against corruption and bureaucracy at all levels of the state and business apparatus.
The business resizing, as part of a strategy that makes possible the economic sustainability of the Cuban socialism model in the conditions of a globalized capitalist world.

The foreign policy of the Island under the presidency of Raúl Castro has continued the same line as under the administration of his brother Fidel. This has been based on the free self-determination of peoples, respect for international law, the struggle for Latin American integration and South-South cooperation, and the disinterested practice of proletarian internationalism.

In February 2010 Raúl headed the Cuban delegation to the II Summit of the Unity of Latin America and the Caribbean (CALC) considered the highest political-economic event held in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2010. The meeting held in the Mexican beach resort of Cancún, located in the Riviera Maya area, served to establish the schedule to follow for the subsequent founding of CELAC.

In 2018 he ceased his functions as President of the State and Government Councils and continues at the head of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Source: Ecured