Raul Castro (born 3 June 1931) was President of Cuba from 24 February 2008 to 19 April 2018, succeeding his brother Fidel Castro and preceding Miguel Diaz-Canel. Unlike his brother, Raul Castro was in favor of negotiations with the United States, and in 2013 the "Cuban Thaw" was achieved with US president Barack Obama, ending the sanctions against Cuba and allowing for the country to end its isolation.
Biography[]
Castro during the revolution
Raul Castro was born on 3 June 1931 in Biran, Cuba of Galician Spanish and Canarian descent. Castro was the younger brother of Fidel Castro, and the brothers were expelled from the first school that they attended. The two of them took part in sometimes violent student actions, being convinced socialists and supporting revolution against the oppressive regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista. As a contact of Soviet KGB agent Nikolai Leonov, Castro secured the USSR's support for the 26th of July Movement during the Cuban Revolution and their support of the new communist government after it took power on 1 January 1959. Castro's second-in-command during the revolution was Che Guevara, and he oversaw the summary execution of dozens of soldiers that had supported Fulgencio Batista in the aftermath of the revolution.
Castro became the highest-ranking commander in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces while his brother was the leader, and on 24 February 2008 he assumed office as President of Cuba after his brother stepped down for health reasons. He planned 300 economic reforms modeled after China's reforms in the 1970s into the 1990s, and on 20 July 2015 Castro normalized relations with the United States in the "Cuban Thaw" with President Barack Obama. On 19 April 2018, he left office as President of Cuba, but he continued to serve as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba until 19 April 2021, when he ceded power to Miguel Diaz-Canel.