Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz[a] (/ˈkæstroʊ/ KASS-troh;[6] Latin American Spanish: [raˈul moˈðesto ˈkastɾo ˈrus]; born 3 June 1931) is a Cuban retired politician and general who served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state,[7] from 2011 to 2021, and President of Cuba between 2008 and 2018,[b] succeeding his brother Fidel Castro.

Castro remained the first secretary of the Communist Party; he was still considered the de facto leader of the country, retaining oversight over the president.

[13] Castro was also the head of the constitutional reform commission,[14] and continues to have a seat representing Santiago de Cuba's Segundo Frente municipality in the National Assembly.

As children, the Castro brothers were expelled from the first school they attended (Colegio La Salle) in Santiago de Cuba.

When the Granma landing failed and the 82 expeditionaries were detected by government troops soon after, Raúl was one of only 12 fighters who managed to reach a safe haven in the Sierra Maestra mountains, forming the core of the nascent rebel army (see Cuban Revolution).

As Fidel's brother and trusted right-hand man and given his proven leadership abilities during and after the Moncada attack, he was given progressively bigger commands.

On 27 February 1958 Raúl 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".

The hostage-taking caused significant U.S. backlash, including unfavorable public reaction, and U.S. consideration to re-establishing military support to Batista and deploying U.S. forces to free the hostages.

[23] Regarding the captured Batista government soldiers, Raúl Castro notes in his war diaries: "All three were brought food and told that they would be released and only their weapons would be kept.

In response to the victory by Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara, the U.S.-backed President Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba in the early morning of 1 January 1959.

[25] The two Castro brothers with their army arrived on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba and said their forces would storm the city at 6 P.M. on 1 January if it did not first surrender.

On 31 July 2006, Fidel Castro's personal secretary, Carlos Valenciaga, announced on state-run television that Fidel Castro would provisionally hand over the duties of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (party chief), President of the Council of State of Cuba (head of state), President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba (prime minister), and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to Raúl Castro while Fidel underwent and recovered from intestinal surgery to repair gastrointestinal bleeding.

[28][29] Many[quantify] commentators regarded Raúl Castro as a political hardliner who would maintain the Communist Party of Cuba's influence in the country.

that he favored a variant of the current Chinese and Vietnamese political and economic model for Cuba in the hopes of preserving some elements of the socialist system.

[31][32] In a speech to university students, Raúl stated that a communist system in Cuba would remain, and that "Fidel is irreplaceable, unless we all replace him together.

In March 2008 the government removed restrictions on the purchase of numerous products not available under Fidel Castro's administration – including DVD-players, computers, rice cookers, and microwaves.

[40] In 2018, he was selected as a candidate for the National Assembly of People's Power by the Segundo Frente municipality in Santiago de Cuba, regarded[by whom?]

However, Raúl Castro remained First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and hence the de facto leader of Cuba, until he resigned on 19 April 2021.

"[42] On 10 December 2013, Castro, in a significant move, shook hands with and greeted American President Barack Obama at the Nelson Mandela memorial service in Johannesburg.

[43] On 17 December 2014, Castro and Obama made separate announcements to the effect that efforts to normalize relations between the two nations would begin with the re-establishment of embassies in Havana and Washington.

He denied involvement but allowed FBI rare access to investigate the incident that allegedly left 21 people with hearing loss and brain damage.

[52] On 16 April 2021, the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba assembled for a four-day meeting,[53] marking the start of Castro's final transfer of leadership and retirement from politics.

[57] Castro married Vilma Espín, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineering student and the daughter of a wealthy lawyer for the Bacardi rum company, on 26 January 1959.

[42] However, Juan Reynaldo Sanchez, a defected bodyguard for Fidel who knew Raul well, wrote later that his warm public exterior was a carefully maintained façade; In private, he found him to be "rough, curt, almost unpleasant" with a dubious sense of humor.

Whereas Fidel was "charismatic, energetic, visionary but extremely impulsive and totally disorganized", Raul was described as a "natural, methodical, and uncompromising organizer".

[citation needed] He is mentioned as "Fidel Castro's brother" in the Billy Bragg song, "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards".