Raúl Castro

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Raúl Castro (2012)

Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (born June 3, 1931 in Birán , Oriente Province ) is a Cuban politician . From 2008 to 2018 he was President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba , from 2011 to 2021 First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). He was one of the leading figures in the Cuban Revolution . He is the younger brother of the former Cuban politician and revolutionary Fidel Castro .

Life

Family and youth

Raúl Castro was born the illegitimate son of a large landowner . His parents were Ángel Castro Argiz , a Spaniard originally sent to Cuba as a colonial soldier and later immigrated from the Galician city ​​of Lugo , and the domestic servant Lina Ruz González , from a penniless peasant family from the province of Pinar del Río , the Ángel after the divorce from his first wife Married in 1941. Raúl is the youngest of the three Castro brothers - alongside Ramón and Fidel . He also has four sisters. These are the older Ángela and the younger Juana , Emma and Augustina. In contrast to his brother Fidel, he is considered a family man who also maintains contact with “renegade” family members in the USA or Spain.

He completed his schooling first in his hometown Birán and then attended a combined civil-military country school founded on the initiative of Fulgencio Batistas and, from 1938, the Jesuit college Colegio Dolores in Santiago de Cuba , which his brothers Fidel and Ramón also attended. While his brother Fidel excelled in his classes both intellectually and athletically, Raúl was less successful. In 1945, with the support of his father, he went to the Jesuit college Colegio Belén in Havana , which his brother Fidel was already attending. In 1946 Raúl had to leave the college and then worked again in agriculture in Birán. In 1950 Raúl returned to Havana, where he moved into an attic apartment with his brother Fidel. Although he never passed the Abitur , he attended an administration course and later sociology courses at the University of Havana , among others with Boris Goldenberg . Raúl Castro does not have a university degree . But he did not receive the same generous material support from his parents' home as Brother Fidel.

During his studies, Raúl was involved in the Juventud Socialista ("Socialist Youth"), the youth association of the Communist Party of Cuba, which is closely related to the Soviet Union (which was called Partido Socialista Popular (PSP) from 1944 to 1962 ). In March 1953, for example, he took part as a delegate at the International Conference for the Defense of Youth Rights in Vienna, which was organized by the Communist World Federation of Democratic Youth , where he was noticed by the Soviet foreign intelligence service , and then visited several Eastern European countries in which, after the Second World War, were held After the influence of the Soviet Union led by Josef Stalin , a Communist Party had taken over the government and rebuilt the state structures and the political system. On the month-long return journey by ship from Europe, he made friends with Nikolai Leonow, a young employee of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, whom he already knew from the Vienna Conference and who would later become an important contact with the Soviet government.

On his re-entry to Cuba on June 6, 1953, Castro was first arrested by the police - he had carried communist propaganda material with him and protested against the arrest of two Central American fellow travelers. After his release he was accepted as a full member by the Socialist Youth in June 1953. Seven weeks later he followed his brother Fidel's call to armed struggle against the dictator Fulgencio Batista , who had come to power in a military coup in March 1952 , even though the Cuban communists were against such actions on principle at the time. As a consequence of his participation in the assault on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, which the PSP leadership viewed as an attempted coup, the Communist Youth Association decided to expel it.

After the victory of the revolution, Raúl married Vilma Espín in Santiago de Cuba in January 1959 , who had already met him during his Mexican exile as an active supporter of the revolutionary movement and who had spent the last months of the guerrilla war at his side. Until her death on June 18, 2007, she was chairwoman of the Cuban Women's Association . Like her husband, she was believed to be convinced of communism and also came from a wealthy, upper-class family in eastern Cuba. They have four children together: Déborah, Mariela , Nilsa and Alejandro . Raúl maintains contact with the "renegade" family members in Miami or Spain and enables secret family get-togethers.

revolution

Raúl Castro (left) together with Che Guevara in the Sierra Cristal (1958)

Raúl Castro was a driving force behind the revolution against the dictator Batista in Cuba. On July 26, 1953, he took part in the attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba , which was led by his brother Fidel. The entire attempt failed. The general secretary of the Cuban communists Blas Roca described the attack as a "petty-bourgeois coup with which we communists have nothing to do". Raúl Castro was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Isla de Pino (now Isla de la Juventud ) south of Havana, but was released after two years as part of a general amnesty on May 15, 1955. On June 12, 1955, he and the released Moncadists founded the July 26th Movement (Movimiento 26 de Julio, M-26-7) .

On the advice of his brother Fidel, he went into exile in Mexico on June 24, 1955 . His brother and other faithful followed him a few days later. In Mexico, Raúl made contact with the Cuban María Antonia González, who was married to the wrestler Arsacio Vaneges. This offered Cuban immigrants free accommodation. In Mexico he was introduced to the Argentine doctor Ernesto "Che" Guevara , with whom he immediately became friends. In a guerrilla training camp there, they prepared for an armed struggle against the Batista regime. In July 1956, Raúl introduced both Guevara and Fidel to his Russian friend Leonov, who was now working in the Soviet embassy in Mexico, and who switched to the KGB in 1958 . According to the memoirs of the then Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev , Raúl "hid his true convictions" from his brother Fidel. Khrushchev considered him "a useful KGB-led influence agent in Havana". In fact, all contacts with domestic and foreign communists and related activities were made with knowledge or even on the instructions of his brother Fidel, who at that time kept the communist option open but wanted to avoid communicating it publicly. Fidel still publicly oriented himself to the anti-communists of his Orthodox party under Eduardo Chibás .

During the fight in the Sierra Maestra, as during the chaotic early days from December 1956, Raúl Castro was considered a disciplined and tough fighter. Comandante en jefe (Supreme Commander) Fidel Castro quickly promoted him to company commander . At the end of February 1958 he was raised to the rank of Comandante (at the same time as Juan Almeida ) and charged with founding and managing the Second Front , named after Frank País , the popular organizer of the urban underground struggle, who was killed in Santiago in the summer of 1957 had been. This first unit, separated from the rest of the rebel army, was to fight from the Sierra Cristal , in almost the far east of Cuba, (today's Holguín province ). Raúl Castro set out there in March of that year with 66 fighters from the Sierra Maestra. The successful struggle began initially for the north of the Oriente province, before a little later other units extended the guerrilla war to the whole country. In the area of ​​the Second Front, smaller armed groups that were not under Fidel Castro's command, but mainly came from the urban guerrilla in Santiago, had already dealt individual blows to the Batista regime. Raúl brought them under his command, which increased the influence of the rebel army led by Fidel.

Raúl had several dozen Americans working there taken hostage at the end of June 1958 in raids on the US-owned nickel mines of Moa and Nicaro , east of Holguín , and operations of the United Fruit Company . He wanted to force the suspension of US sales of military equipment and fuel to Batista, who had recently launched a summer offensive against the rebel army. However, Raúl's action was not discussed with his brother Fidel, who was determined to avoid a confrontation with the United States . Raúl released the hostages, albeit reluctantly and with a delay. Fidel was just able to prevent Raúl's plan to kidnap US soldiers stationed in Guantánamo . Not only would it have been a violation of international law , but it would also have very likely led to the intervention of the USA, even though it had already scaled back its support for Batista in the course of the fight in the Sierra Maestra.

Raúl Castro showed military and organizational talent during his time as Comandante in the Sierra Cristal. He created a special unit initially consisting of 53 men, which over time grew to over 1,000 men, as well as a revolutionary administration as a model for the later regime. The poor farmers in the region were also supported by not confiscating their surplus crops, but buying them for real money. In addition, social infrastructures were created in the region by building roads, schools, hospitals and pharmacies. All of these measures contributed significantly to the popularity of the rebels in the area, but the propagation of Marxist ideas also caused irritation among non-communist members and supporters of the rebel army.

Raúl Castro, like Che Guevara, was known for mercilessly shooting traitors, criminals and deserters for the military and social discipline of the troops. With the aim of deterrence, Raúl also had prisoners of war executed in front of Batista supporters. Even during the guerrilla training in Mexico, Raúl had to prove that he was a “capable revolutionary”, which also meant being able to kill. Possible reasons for a death sentence, as defined by Che, were “ insubordination , desertion or defeatism ”. The guerrillero Calixto Morales, who was accused of insubordination before the “court martial” - he no longer felt able to carry out a particularly strenuous training session - was sentenced to death by “prosecutor” Raúl Castro, but later pardoned by Fidel. In November 1956, Fidel suspected a Batista spy in the ranks of the revolutionaries and ordered his shooting without trial. Raúl personally carried out the order.

Immediately after the victory of the revolution on New Year's Day 1959, Raúl Castro took over the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba and with it the military command of the region. Under his direction there were mass shootings of alleged and actual war criminals and torturers in Batista's service. For example, he had 70 ex-soldiers and civilians set up in groups in front of a mass grave and shot with machine guns. The pit was then filled in with bulldozers. These obvious atrocities sparked great outrage in the Cuban and US press, so that Fidel, worried about the reputation of the revolution, soon banned such public executions. Shortly after his arrival in the capital, Raúl took over command of the previous General Staff of the Armed Forces in the Columbia barracks in Havana on January 11th.

Politicians in post-revolutionary Cuba

After the revolution until the collapse of the Eastern bloc (1959–1990)

After the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro was Vice Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976, after which he became Vice President of the State Council. He was considered an ideological hardliner.

Together with his friend Che Guevara, Raúl Castro was one of the few avowed communists in the rebel army, the majority of which had emerged from the bourgeois milieu of Cuba. While Che also harbored sympathy for Stalin , Mao Zedong's China and for the North Korean Chuch'e ideology , Raúl was considered a loyal representative of Soviet communism at the time. After the victory of the revolution in 1959, however, they moved closer to the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc together. The comprehensive land reform and expropriation of the banks and large-scale industry from 1959 onwards was organized by mutual agreement. They paid no attention to the sensitivities of the USA, whose companies (such as the United Fruit Company ) held large shares in Cuba.

Raúl was particularly concerned that his brother Fidel was initially still looking for negotiations with the USA and supposedly did not want to know anything about a communist orientation of the revolution. In 1964, Raúl Che accused a pro-Chinese stance. While Che Guevara openly turned away from the Soviet Union in 1965 and Fidel was also considered an insecure companion by the Soviets, Raúl was always "her husband in Havana". His proximity to the Soviet Union and the KGB protected him more or less from the fate of numerous other Comandantes de la Revolución who were thrown into prison or had to emigrate to the USA, including their sister Juanita , because Fidel saw no blood relationship Guarantee of loyalty . Raúl became the "mouse-gray Eminence" of the Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro.

From January 1959, Raúl organized the complete restructuring of the previous Cuban armed forces and the transformation of the revolutionary troops, whose separately operating units had a high degree of autonomy during the guerrilla war, into an effective and centrally controlled instrument of the state. In the course of this process, the previous Ministry of Defense was dissolved, and Raúl took over the post of Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces on October 18, 1959 at the head of the newly established ministry. His area of ​​responsibility also included the military industry, civil defense and the revolutionary militias that were formed a little later. At the request of Raúl Castro, the Soviet Union supported this reorganization process from April 1959 by sending initially seventeen Spanish communists, who had been trained at the Soviet military academy, as paid advisers, which was kept secret from the public. The MINFAR (Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces) demonstrated its clout and ability to deter armed opponents from inside and outside over the next few decades and also intervened in numerous civil and international wars - with the military operation in Angola as the most important example.

Raul Castro was in 1959, involved the popular, but against communist currents very skeptical guerrilla leader Comandante Huber Matos after his resignation because of high treason accuse and condemn in a process to twenty years in prison to leave. The disappearance of the charismatic Revolutionary Comandante, Chief of Staff and friend Matos' Camilo Cienfuegos , without a trace after an alleged plane crash, is said to have come in handy for Castro, as it was very helpful to his rise to the position of defense minister and second man in the state. So far, however, there is no evidence of a conspiracy .

In the period that followed in the 1970s and 80s, Raúl built up his own house power, which consisted less of the old revolutionaries and more of proven "internationalists": fighters who excelled in attempting to export revolution in Latin America or Africa , for example in Angola . At the end of the 1980s, however, the popular Angola veteran Arnaldo Ochoa threatened the nepotist power structure of the Castro brothers. His execution in 1989 for corruption and drug trafficking , although Ochoa apparently did so with the knowledge and approval of top management in order to raise foreign currency for the country, was a signal to eliminate political opponents and to discipline politically ambitious military personnel. According to the now exiled writer and former friend of Raúl, Norberto Fuentes , Raúl Castro provided the ideological justification for drug smuggling into the United States: “Fidel says we have to be very tactful about this matter. But Fidel also says that the colonial powers financed all of their wars in Asia through the opium trade . In this respect, our activity is basically part of the historical retaliation of the oppressed peoples. ”Despite this action, Raúl is regarded by the military as“ reliable and predictable ”, in contrast to his brother Fidel.

As defense minister, Raúl Castro controlled significant parts of the Cuban economy, as important state-owned companies in tourism, nickel mining and the sugar industry belong to the army. Military are or have stood at the head of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Sugar, the Ministry of Higher Education, the head of the Civil Aviation Administration, the Ministry of Health, the Port of Havana and other important institutions.

Period of the special period up to Fidel's illness (1990-2006)

After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the special period that followed , Raúl Castro appeared as a realpolitician and economic reformer. For example, in 1994, at the time of the deepest crisis, when there was even unrest , he persuaded his brother to reopen the free farmers' markets, which had only been abolished in 1986, which led to a rapid improvement in the supply situation. In this context, he also considered using the military to combat civil unrest, which was previously the exclusive responsibility of the police, secret service and special paramilitary units. However, this would have seriously jeopardized the high popularity of the Cuban armed forces among the population.

Under the leadership of the military controlled by Raúl Castro, numerous management methods based on Western models were introduced to cushion the negative economic effects on Cuba , including the name Sistema de Perfeccionamiento Empresarial . Under the management of an older three-star general, model agricultural businesses were set up in which modern methods of cultivating useful plants, management and sales of goods were tried out. In these model companies, young soldiers (Ejercito Juvenil de Trabajo) work in a different way than in the rest of the Cuban economy, namely not in a scarce and mundane economy, according to the former Ambassador Wulffen .

Presidency

Raúl Castro with Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev (November 2008)
Raúl Castro receives Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (January 2009)

On July 31, 2006, the head of state and government Fidel Castro temporarily transferred the leadership of the party, the supreme command of the army and the office of head of state to his deputy and brother Raúl due to a serious illness. Fidel had to undergo a complicated bowel operation. Until then, Raúl had always served his brother Fidel as a loyal vice.

In contrast to his charismatic brother, Raúl is considered to be “the top administrative cadre of bureaucratic socialism . Much more than his brother, Raúl has to balance and integrate the various forces in the apparatus. ”He is neither a good speaker nor a man of grand gestures. However, he does not even try to copy his brother in this regard. However, according to Fidel biographer Carlos Widmann , Raúl has been “healthier, even rejuvenated” since his presidency. He is considered a pragmatist . Political scientist Bert Hoffmann , after ten years in office, also certifies that he is “much more moderate and pragmatic in foreign policy than his brother”.

At the beginning of his tenure, observers expected from Raúl that although he could alleviate the country's economic problems through economic reforms, major political reforms were unlikely. Also with regard to freedom of expression , the reins no longer seem to be pulled as tightly as during Fidel's tenure. Raúl has called on the people to discuss future developments, the Cuban press criticizes the laziness of the officials and nothing is even done against blogs from Cuba that are critical of the government , such as that of Yoani Sánchez . Numerous political prisoners , including all members of the "Group of 75" arrested during the Black Spring and sentenced to long prison terms, were released by March 2011 through the mediation of the Catholic Church . Most of them were deported to Spain . A few dissidents who refused to be deported were ultimately allowed to remain in Cuba “on probation”.

In the election for the National Assembly on January 20, 2008, Raúl Castro achieved the highest number of votes of all MPs with 99.3 percent. His brother Fidel came fourth with 98.4 percent of the vote.

On February 24, 2008, Raúl was elected President of the Council of State (Head of State) and President of the Council of Ministers (Head of Government) by Parliament after his brother Fidel had declared a few days earlier that he would no longer run for these offices. In his inaugural address, he addressed the country's problems, such as the dual currency system, which, however, are very complex and not easy to solve. He spoke of a process of transition and announced that he wanted to lift some bans for the population, but without going into details. However, he wants to continue on the path of socialism.

As a result, hopes that Cuba could soon introduce a Western model of democracy with a multi-party system and a market economy were dashed. Although Raúl Castro is said to have sympathy for the Chinese model, according to which the economy is modernized according to market economy guidelines, but the one-party system is retained, experts do not believe that this is the case for Cuba due to its lack of geographic size and its proximity to the "main enemy" USA with a large one Cuban exile community would be a realistic option.

Fidel Castro himself initially rarely interfered in Cuba's domestic politics, but limited himself to comments on foreign policy issues. After the apparent recovery from his illness, however, he apparently no longer adhered to appropriate agreements, which was seen as one of the reasons that the announced reforms lacked “coherence and dynamism”.

From 2009, Raúl Castro gradually began to replace the top management in the Council of Ministers. These included younger “high potentials” such as Carlos Lage and Felipe Pérez Roque . Among other things, they were accused of disloyalty . These positions were replaced by confidants of Raúl Castro from the time of the revolution and soldiers from the Ministry of Defense, with whom he had worked for years. Fidel Castro biographer Volker Skierka describes Cuba under Raúl Castro as “a kind of military dictatorship ” because of the strong influence of the military on all levels of politics and economy .

In 2010 Raúl Castro announced economic reforms. A decisive part of the plan was to dismiss around 500,000 state employees from the oversized administration and unprofitable state companies, an eighth of the workforce, within six months. By 2015 the number should increase to 1.3 million. This should be absorbed by the legalization of a total of 178 self-employed activities , which, however, only include relatively low-level activities such as pizza baker or taxi driver, while experts call for a significant expansion of the list to include academic professions.

On the VI. At the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in April 2011, Castro also took over the highest office in the party as his brother's successor. The significant rejuvenation of the leadership in the state and party, which he himself warned, failed to materialize.

On December 24, 2011, Castro announced that thousands of prisoners, including dissidents, would be released on “humanitarian grounds”. This is the largest mass amnesty in Cuba's history to date. In doing so, he responded to requests from family members and various regional institutions, for which the church also campaigned. Among other things, an upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI. According to Castro, the reason for this in spring 2012. By December 29, 2011, nearly 3,000 prisoners had been released, including seven political prisoners. The amnesty applies above all to women, the sick and the elderly, as well as to young prisoners with good opportunities for rehabilitation, who received prison sentences mainly for minor offenses. Convicted murderers, drug traffickers or alleged foreign agents such as the American Alan Gross are excluded from the amnesty. Because of the few political prisoners who were released, the human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz described the mass amnesty as a “media staging”.

Castro was confirmed by the People's Congress on February 24, 2013 for a further five-year term. In his speech there, he announced that this would be his last term in office.

After Raúl Castro and US President Barack Obama unexpectedly shook hands on December 10, 2013 during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg , Castro and Obama ushered in a new era of relations between the US and Cuba in December 2014. On the part of the USA, Obama used his powers as president to lift numerous embargo restrictions that did not fall under the responsibility of Congress . This made it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba without any connection to Cuba, and Cuba was also removed from the US list of countries supporting terrorism .

On March 20, 2016, Barack Obama became the first US President in 88 years to make an official state visit to Cuba that lasted three days and during which he was received by Raúl Castro on the second day. In the run-up, some embargo easings were announced, which are within the competence of the US President. However, his brother Fidel († November 25, 2016) was critical of the thaw in relations with the USA that had occurred since the end of 2014 . “We don't need the Empire to give us anything,” was his central statement on this visit.

In December 2017, the Cuban parliament decided that the end of Castro's term of office, originally planned for February 24, 2018, would be postponed by almost two months to April 19, 2018. This was justified with the effects of Hurricane Irma . On April 19, 2018, Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected as his successor as President and Prime Minister. However, Castro remained party leader and thus the most powerful man in the state. On April 19, 2021, at the 8th Party Congress, he also handed over the office of party leader to his successor Díaz-Canel. In his last speech at the party congress, Castro called for a "respectful dialogue" with the United States.

See also

Movie

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Raúl Castro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Carlos Widmann: Endgame with Raúl . In: The last book on Fidel Castro. Pp. 316-330.
  2. ^ Volker Hermsdorf: Raul Castro. Revolutionary and statesman. Wiljo Heinen, Berlin and Böklund 2016, ISBN 978-3-95514-029-8 , pp. 30–33.
  3. ^ Volker Hermsdorf: Raul Castro. Revolutionary and statesman. Wiljo Heinen, Berlin and Böklund 2016, ISBN 978-3-95514-029-8 , p. 33.
  4. ^ Volker Hermsdorf: Raul Castro. Revolutionary and statesman. Wiljo Heinen, Berlin and Böklund 2016, ISBN 978-3-95514-029-8 , p. 34.
  5. ^ Volker Hermsdorf: Raul Castro. Revolutionary and statesman. Wiljo Heinen, Berlin and Böklund 2016, ISBN 978-3-95514-029-8 , p. 36.
  6. ↑ Bernd Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 32.
  7. ^ Raúl Castro in the Encyclopedia EnCaribe (Spanish).
  8. ^ Cuba: 50 years of revolution. ( Memento of February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Morning Star , January 7, 2009, accessed on October 13, 2011 (English).
  9. ^ Raúl Castro: Raúl Castro On 1953 Moncada Assault: 'Aim Was To Spark Revolutionary Armed Action' . in: The Militant, August 2, 1999, accessed July 17, 2013.
  10. ↑ Revolution from the hip . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1969 ( online ).
  11. ^ Raúl Castro . In: Biografías y Vidas. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  12. ↑ Gerd Koenen: Dream Paths of the World Revolution. P. 131.
  13. ↑ Rafael Poch: Tres preguntas sobre Rusia: estado de mercado, Eurasia y fin del mundo bipolar, p. 75 f., Icaria, Barcelona 2000 (Spanish), ( partly online ( memento of February 24, 2001 in the Internet Archive )).
  14. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 41 ff.
  15. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 45 ff.
  16. ^ Carlos Franqui: Family Portrait with Fidel. P. 157 f. (English).
  17. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 46 f.
  18. ↑ Rafael Rojas: El origen de la dictadura. In: Nuevo Herald , July 13, 2008, accessed October 13, 2011 (Spanish).
  19. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 47 f.
  20. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Island of Extremes - Cuba in the 20th Century. 2nd edition (2004), page 177.
  21. ↑ a b c Centro de Información y Documentación Internacionales de Barcelona: Raúl Castro Ruz in the biography database of political leaders, as of June 6, 2011, accessed on October 13, 2011 (Spanish).
  22. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Island of Extremes - Cuba in the 20th Century. 2nd edition (2004), page 173.
  23. ↑ Gerd Koenen : Traumpfade der Weltrevolution, p. 190.
  24. ↑ Wulffen: Cuba in transition, p. 51.
  25. ↑ The man behind the myth . In: Deutschlandradio Kultur , September 24, 2008.
  26. ↑ Gerd Koenen: Traumpfade der Weltrevolution, p. 15 f., P. 21 f., Among others.
  27. ↑ Gerd Koenen : Dream Paths of the World Revolution. P. 224 f.
  28. ^ Bert Hoffmann: Cuba. 3rd edition, p. 83 ff.
  29. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 48 ff.
  30. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 60 f.
  31. ^ Samuel Farber: The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered, p. 146, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8078-5673-4 (English).
  32. ↑ César Aguilera Reynel: Razones de Angola (IX). in: Penúltimos Días of December 22, 2010, accessed July 5, 2012 (Spanish).
  33. ↑ Creación del MINFAR: Con características propias. In: Bohemia , September 23, 2009, accessed May 9, 2011 (Spanish).
  34. ^ Wulffen: Cuba in transition. P. 48 f.
  35. ↑ Gerd Koenen: Traumpfade der Weltrevolution, p. 211 f.
  36. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Island of extremes - Cuba in the 20th century. 2nd edition (2004), page 242 f.
  37. ^ Bert Hoffmann: Kuba (2009), p. 128.
  38. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Island of Extremes - Cuba in the 20th Century. 2nd edition (2004), p. 331.
  39. ↑ Peter Thiery, Arndt Wierheim: Cuba after Castro - actors and scenarios of transformation . (PDF; 129 kB) Bertelsmann Politics Research Group, Center for Applied Political Research, University of Munich , September 2006.
  40. ↑ Castro transfers official duties to Brother Raul. In: Spiegel Online , August 1, 2006.
  41. ^ A b c Bert Hoffmann: Cuba under the other Castro - The revision of the revolution after Fidel . In: Le Monde diplomatique . No. 8682 of September 12, 2008.
  42. ^ A b Bert Hoffmann: Raúl Castro is not a new Fidel . In: taz.de , April 15, 2011.
  43. ↑ Bert Hoffmann: Kuba (2009), p. 127 f.
  44. ^ Ten years without Fidel Castro. In: Der Tagesspiegel. July 30, 2016, accessed July 30, 2016 .
  45. ↑ Knut Henkel: Cuba's perceived change. In: taz.de , January 22, 2008.
  46. ↑ Knut Henkel: Press in Cuba - Criticism suddenly welcome. In: taz.de , December 13, 2007.
  47. ↑ Island of the stowaways. In: Die Zeit , No. 5/2008.
  48. ↑ Cuba frees prisoners of conscience (English) Amnesty International, March 23, 2011, accessed November 5, 2018
  49. ^ Fidel, sólo cuarto. In: El País , February 1, 2008.
  50. ^ Inaugural speech by Raúl Castro as the new President before the Cuban Parliament ( Memento of April 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish) ( Version in English ( Memento of August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )) of February 24, 2008.
  51. ↑ Hildegard Stausberg: Cuba's last chance . In: The world . December 22, 2010.
  52. ↑ a b Uwe Optenhögel Cuba: How tropical socialism risks its own inheritance . (PDF; 168 kB) In: International Politics and Society. 3/2010.
  53. ↑ "Fidel devolvió la dignidad al pueblo cubano" . In: Deutsche Welle , August 13, 2015 (Spanish)
  54. ↑ Bert Hoffmann: Cuba on the way to market socialism? In: GIGA Focus Latin America 9/2010
  55. ↑ Uwe Optenhögel: Cuba on a new path: Can a dose of the market save the revolution? (PDF; 51 kB) Friedrich Ebert Foundation , February 2011.
  56. ↑ "The state is withdrawing" . Interview by Knut Henkel with the Cuban economist Omar Pérez Villanueva. taz.de, January 15, 2011.
  57. ↑ Cuba's renewal: the old are followed by the old . In: Spiegel Online , April 19, 2011.
  58. ^ Amnesty - Cuba wants to pardon 2,900 prisoners. In: Zeit Online , December 24, 2011.
  59. ↑ Mass amnesty: Cuba releases almost 3,000 prisoners ( memento from March 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: tagesschau.de , December 29, 2011, accessed on December 29, 2011.
  60. ↑ Raul Castro only does it once ( Memento from February 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau , February 25, 2013.
  61. ^ Bert Hoffmann: Cuba-USA: Change through rapprochement. (PDF) In: GIGA Focus 2/2015.
  62. ↑ Cuba and the removal from the US terror list . In: standard.at , April 15, 2015
  63. ↑ Boris Herrmann: Why Fidel Castro railed against the USA . In: Sueddeutsche.de , March 29, 2016
  64. ↑ Raul Castro announces resignation. In: news.ORF.at. December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2017 .
  65. ↑ Raul Castro resigns as Cuba's head of state in April. In: Focus online , December 21, 2017
  66. ↑ Michael Vosatka: Miguel Díaz-Canel: Cuba's next generation of the revolution. In: The Standard. April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018 .
  67. ^ Cuba: For the first time no Castro - President Díaz-Canel new party leader of the communists. In: editorial network Germany. April 19, 2021, accessed April 19, 2021 .
  68. ↑ Raúl Castro promotes a new relationship with the United States. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 17, 2021, accessed April 17, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Castro, Raúl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Castro Ruz, Raúl; Castro Ruz, Raúl Modesto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban politician and head of state, former revolutionary
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Birán , Cuba