T1 CRITICAL ⛔ SANCTIONED 🎯 HR 🌳 CASTRO

alias Raúl Castro

Retired General; former First Secretary of the PCC; member of the Politburo

Raúl Castro was a central figure of the 26th of July Movement and commanded the Second Eastern Front during the revolution. He served as Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces for nearly five decades (1959–2008), making the FAR the most institutionally cohesive arm of the Cuban state. He assumed the presidency in 2006 (acting) and 2008 (formally) after Fidel's illness, oversaw the 2010s economic reforms and the 2014–2017 US-Cuba thaw under Obama, and handed over the presidency to Díaz-Canel in 2018 and the PCC First Secretaryship in 2021. He is the senior surviving founder of the regime.