Raúl Castro

June 3, 1931

Cuban revolutionary and politician, brother of Fidel Castro, who was President of Cuba from 2008 to 2018 and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 2011 to 2021.

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Biography

Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz was born in Birán, in eastern Cuba, in 1931, the younger brother of Fidel Castro. He took part in the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks and was one of the military leaders of the 26th of July Movement during the Cuban Revolution.

After the revolution's victory in 1959 he became minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, a post he held until 2008, longer than anyone else. He was second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from its founding in 1965, sat on its Politburo, and was first vice president of Cuba from 1976.

When Fidel fell ill in July 2006, Raúl took over as acting head of state, and the National Assembly made him president in February 2008; he was re-elected in 2013. In December 2014 he and Barack Obama announced the start of a normalisation of relations between Cuba and the United States. He handed the presidency to Miguel Díaz-Canel in April 2018 and retired as first secretary of the party, a post he had held since 2011, at its Eighth Congress in April 2021.