Raul Castro:a quiet reformer? Photos and text ©Jazz Editions/LightMediation
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is the new Cuban President since feburary 24, 2008. The younger brother of Fidel Castro, is also Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Fidel Castro, 81, has to watch powerlessly from his sickbed the sidelines a renovation process set by his younger brother Raul, 76. In the past few weeks, the new President has begun to implement some of his promised reforms. Initial agricultural liberalization aims to raise food production and sell more products, including politically sensitive ones such as the tools required to undertake production. While Raul Castro has allowed Cubans to buy cellphones, computers, electronic appliances remain devilish objects for Fidel Castro. In a recent letter to a congress of Cuban intellectuals and authors, Fidel Castro made clear his displeasure about current reforms. He accused his successors led by brother Raul of having opened the door to egoism in Cuba. « They lack a deep understanding about what holds the world together », he claimed.
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-02: Fidel Castro (left) with brothers Raul (center) and Ramon (right) / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-03: Fidel Castro (center), brother raul (left) and friends leaving prison. Mexico city, july 1956. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-04: Raul Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos during the last days of the guerilla. December 1958. Cuba. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-05: Raul Castro looks at his elder brother Fidel in the Sierra Maestra during the guerilla days. 1957. Cuba. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-06: Raul Castro and his wife, Vilma Espin, Havana, 1959. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-07: Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, talks on radio during the last days of the guerilla. December 1958. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-08: Fidel Castro talks with younger brother Raul. Havana, 1958. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-09: Raul Castro, younger brother of Fidel Castro smiling and signing an official paper for a catholic nun in the early days of the Revolution. Havana, 1959. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-10: Che Guevara with Raul Castro. Havana, 1962. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro / 1612-11: Raul Castro smiling, Havana, 1960. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-12: Raul Castro reads "Prensa Libre". Havana, Cuba, 1959. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-13: Raul Castro (left) with GĂŠrard Philipe in Havana. The French actor was supposed to play the role of the younger brother of Fidel Castro in a movie about the Cuban Revolution. Gerard Philipe died in november 1959. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-14: Che Guevara and Raul Castro at the University of Santiago de Cuba. 1960. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-15: Che Guevara with Raul Castro. Havana, 1962. / Cuba /
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Raul Castro
Raul Castro / 1612-16: Fidel and younger brother Raul Castro in front of a statue of Jose Marti 1/2/1979-Havana, Cuba: President Fidel Castro applauds with his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro (L), during proceedings of a military parade celebrating the 20th anniversary of the revolution. January 2, 1979 .Havana, Cuba / Cuba /
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Raul Castro: a quiet reformer? Cuba is moving with the new President Fidel Castro, 81, has to watch powerlessly from his sickbed the sidelines a renovation process set by his younger brother Raul, 76. In the past few weeks, the new President has begun to implement some of his promised reforms. Initial agricultural liberalization aims to raise food production and sell more products, including politically sensitive ones such as the tools required to undertake production. While Raul Castro has allowed Cubans to buy cellphones, computers, electronic appliances remain devilish objects for Fidel Castro. In a recent letter to a congress of Cuban intellectuals and authors, Fidel Castro made clear his displeasure about current reforms. He accused his successors led by brother Raul of having opened the door to egoism in Cuba. « They lack a deep understanding about what holds the world together », he claimed. "Modern man is not less egoistical than Greek men in Plato's time," Fidel told intellectuals who once followed him with determination. CDs and DVDs, mobile phones, the internet, microwaves and digital cameras are only there to grant money and power to international companies. Does this kind of existence that imperialism promises make any sense at all?" Fidel Castro asked. Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is the new Cuban President since feburary 24. The younger brother of Fidel Castro is also
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Youth Son of Spanish immigrant Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz, a Cuban woman of Galician ancestry, Raúl is the youngest of the three Castro brothers. Like Fidel, Raúl attended the Jesuit Schools in Santiago and Havana. Raúl, as an undergraduate, studied social sciences. The brothers participated actively in sometimes violent student political actions. In 1953, Raúl was a member of the 26th of July Movement that attacked the Moncada Barracks, and he spent 22 months in prison as a result of this action. During his exile in Mexico, he befriended Ernesto "Che" Guevara and brought him into Fidel's circle of revolutionaries and the preparations of the expedition of the yacht Granma, embarking for Cuba on December 2, 1956. Raul was one of the few survivors of the disastrous Granma landing. He was part of the tiny group of survivors who managed to reach a safe haven in the Sierra Maestra mountains. As Fidel's brother and trusted right-hand man he was given progressively bigger commands. On February 27, 1958, Raul was made comandante and assigned the mission to cross the old province of Oriente leading a column of guerrillas to open, to the northeast of that territory, the "Frank País Eastern Front." By October 1958, after being reinforced by Fidel, the two brothers had about 2,000 fighters and they were operating freely throughout Oriente province. In December, while Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos were operating around Santa Clara, Fidel and Raul's army laid siege to Maffo, capturing it on December
30th. Their victorious army then headed to Santiago de Cuba, the capital of Oriente province. Thanks to the loss of Santa Clara, Batista fled Cuba on night of December 31-January 1. The war was over and Fidel was able to take power in Havana when he arrived on January 6, 1959. Raúl Castro Ruz was appointed Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces when the Ministry was founded in October 1959 and served in that capacity until February 2008. Castro is credited with persuading his older brother to implement agricultural market reforms in the early 1990s which increased the food supply, after the Soviet Union fell and its generous subsidies to Cuba stopped. A few weeks after the 1959 victory, Castro married Vilma Espín, a former MIT chemical engineering student and veteran of the revolution who in 1960 became president of the Cuban Federation of Women. Their daughter Mariela currently heads the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. Vilma Espín died on June 18, 2007. In an interview in 2006, following his assumption of presidential duties, Raúl Castro commented on his public profile stating: "I am not used to making frequent appearances in public, except at times when it is required ? I have always been discreet, that is my way, and in passing I will clarify that I am thinking of continuing in that way." Many commentators consider Raúl Castro to be a political hardliner who will maintain the Communist Party of Cuba's political power at all costs. However, there are others who believe that he is more
pragmatic than his older brother and more willing to institute free market-oriented economic policies. It is speculated that he favours a variant of the current Chinese political and economic model for Cuba in the hopes of preserving some elements of the socialist system. Several commentators, including some writers on the The Wall Street Journal, call Castro "uncharismatic and widely feared," with a "cold efficient" style. Considered much less charismatic than his brother Fidel Castro, Raul is remaining largely out of public view. While Fidel Castro historically mesmerized his countrymen with dramatic, extemporaneous speeches stretching over hours, brother Raúl is known for his businesslike, unanimated delivery, rarely bothering to look up from prepared texts a quieter Castro voice. A quiet renovation process of the Revolution.