In various nations, influence doesn’t originate from one’s professional designation, but rather from being featured in opportune images.
On the preceding Friday, Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Cuban head of state, utilized an assembly of high-ranking officials to openly verify that his government was engaging in discussions with a Trump administration, which had publicly declared Cuba as its forthcoming objective. Occupying a seat in the front row was Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, aged 41. When Díaz-Canel later conducted a news conference, Rodríguez Castro, clad in an immaculately pressed blue shirt and a trim haircut, was once more part of the official contingent.
To the people of Cuba, Rodríguez Castro is far from an unfamiliar individual – he is, undeniably, the grand-nephew of Fidel Castro and the grandson of Raúl Castro, who, despite being 94 and having stepped down half a decade prior, is still widely regarded as the supreme political power on the island.
Nevertheless, Rodríguez Castro—commonly dubbed Raúlito, or less charitably as “El Cangrejo” (the crab) due to the peculiar form of his finger—does not occupy a prominent role within either the government or the Communist Party. His primary source of notoriety has been sporadic social media disclosures regarding his celebratory way of life.
Despite this, he has surfaced as the principal spokesperson in negotiations concerning the liberalization of Cuba’s economy and political system, a position initially disclosed by Axios. On the American side, these discussions are being guided by Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American foreign minister who has designated the ousting of the Castro family as his paramount political objective.
Raúlito’s attendance serves as a reminder that, although Díaz-Canel has served as the leader of the Communist Party since 2021 and is encompassed by a cohort of administrators holding uncompromising perspectives on the US, numerous governmental pathways in Havana still continue to lead via the Castro family.
“The circumstance that El Cangrejo is a prominent personality in this entire scenario, rather than the chief of the Communist Party or the president of the country, is an indicator that one is witnessing a family dynasty striving to endure and to retain its prerogative and influence,” asserts Orlando Pérez, an academic at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Cuba’s Communist Party administration and the Castros have been intricately linked from the time of the 1959 revolution.
The nation’s economic system has been in turmoil ever since Covid devastated its travel sector, and it has recently worsened following the Trump administration’s enforcement of an energy embargo. Envoys document extensive famine and collapsing healthcare provisions. On Monday, an electrical failure immersed the whole country in darkness.
Although the administration has endured previous crises, there have been glimpses of potential outcomes if the present predicament persists. On the previous Friday, protestors in the municipality of Morón ignited the Communist Party’s main building. Washington is openly mocking Cuba’s rulers. On Monday, Donald Trump stated he could have the “privilege” of “assuming control of Cuba in some manner”.
This marks not the initial occasion that Washington has endeavored to engage via a youthful Castro. The Obama administration conducted confidential discussions with Alejandro Castro Espín, Raúl’s son and Raúlito’s uncle, in anticipation of the 2015 effort to normalize ties — an initiative that faltered during the initial Trump presidency.
Ricardo Zúñiga, one of two American functionaries who participated in those endeavors, asserts that “contacting Raúlito appears somewhat logical.” He further notes: “It might seem an unusual selection considering his history and dearth of expertise, but he plainly communicates frequently with Raúl.”
Raúlito’s primary function has been to serve as the chief of private safety for his grandparent. Via his parent, an ex-general who managed Gaesa, the principal government-owned corporation, prior to his demise in 2022, he possesses a connection within the armed forces and commerce sectors.
Additionally, he has appeared on exile platforms that aim to unveil the ways of life of the Cuban privileged class — reveling on an opulent yacht or, in one instance, splashing a beverage on his noggin in a nightspot while donning a customized New York Yankees jersey.
Michael Bustamante, a specialist on Cuba at the University of Miami, asserts that Raúlito’s public persona is of an individual who has “reveled in the nightlife in a manner that resembles more a mimicry of Miami than revolutionary Havana”. He further remarks: “He doesn’t strike me as somebody genuinely committed to the system, but rather solely invested in his personal benefit and safeguarding himself.”
Neither is Raúlito the sole Castro recently prominent. In an endeavor to demonstrate Cuba is liberalizing its economic system, the administration declared on Monday that Cuban citizens residing overseas were now permitted to invest there. The declaration was issued by Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, the deputy prime minister who is a grand-nephew of Raúl and Fidel Castro. (Due to the power outage that specific day, numerous Cubans could only ascertain this information via their radios.)
One peril of engaging straightaway with the Castros is a repercussion amongst Cuban-Americans in Florida, Rubio’s native locality. María Elvira Salazar, the Congresswoman representing south Miami, has been plainspoken: “The Castros and their henchmen have no part in the upcoming future of Cuba,” she declares.
Zúñiga, the ex-Obama functionary, posits it could also be an error to exaggerate the Castro family’s impact within the regime. Obama’s tenure demonstrated that “one must engage with the whole governance.”
“We engaged with Alejandro and, via him, with Raúl, but the uncompromising elements vanquished them. It was an enlightenment for everyone implicated,” he declares. “It is no longer the same as it was in Fidel’s period, or even Raúl’s era. It is presently a collective.”
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