A few weeks after turning 95 on a dark island, Raúl Castro witnesses a collapse that was not in his plans: What was once known as the Cuban Revolution is melting like ice cream under the relentless sun of the tropics. The work that had his brother Fidel as the main sculptor is dying in the midst of the internal hardships derived from the exhaustion of a model that was always economically dependent, aggravated by the unprecedented pressure from the United States. And the neighbor that José Martí called “the monster”, At the end of the 19th century, news reached the nonagenarian that he had not even contemplated in his nightmares: The Department of Justice decided to charge him for their responsibility in the shooting down of two civilian planes of the organization Brothers to the Rescue, based in Miami, on February 24, 1996. In that action on February 24, 1996, four Cuban Americans died. Since then it has been said that the shots of the MiG-29 of the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force were registered in international waters in the Strait of Florida.
The possible analogy with what happened to Nicolás Maduro is obvious. Six years ago, under the previous Donald Trump Government, a US court accused him of being linked to drug trafficking. That was one of the causes that justified the military intervention on January 3. Cuba is not Venezuela, but the similarities are undeniable, and even more so considering that Jason Reding Quiñonesthe Miami prosecutor who could take charge of the case is a fervent follower of the Republican billionaire.
Among the foundations of the accusation of the man who formally retired from Government affairs in 2018 but remains equally decisive on key issues, is an audio from June 1996 in which Raúl, still Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, would tell how the downing of the planes was ordered: “He said that they try to knock them down above the territorybut they entered Havana and left… Well, throw them in the sea when they appear.” The transcript of the tape, 11 minutes and 32 seconds long, was published two decades ago by journalist Wilfredo Cancio in The New Herald. The authenticity of the voice of the youngest Castro was confirmed by his former personal secretary: Alcibiades Hidalgo, who broke with the Government in 2002.
Cuba’s response
Havana was waiting for the news, and it was the embassy in Washington that rejected the accusation, alleging that between 1994 and 1996 there were more than 25 violations of Cuban airspace by Brothers to the Rescue. Each of those flights were “formally reported in writing” to the State Department, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). “No one can claim ignorance“added the diplomatic legation. As part of its response, it included an internal FAA memorandum dated January 22, 1996, a month before the shootdown, in which official Cecilia Capestany issued the following warning: “the worst scenario is that one day the Cubans shoot down one of these planes and (for) the FAA it is better to have everything in order.” Other leaders of the island made reference to the pilots’ alleged contacts with the CIA.
Always behind the brother
Raúl, as he has always been called, became the second man of Cuban power after the departure of Ernesto Che Guevarain 1965. He was the architect of the military structure and had a fundamental weight in the process of bringing the revolution closer to Moscow. It was a natural proximity. When his brother was part of the Orthodox Party, he, five years younger, was close to the Popular Socialist Party (PSP), completely aligned with the USSR. That old sympathy gained value starting in 1959, when the PSP, whose participation in the fight against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista was not worthy of praise, began to occupy spaces of power in the state structure, the management of culture and, later, in the new Communist Party.
His father had arrived on the island from Lugo. Like Fidel, he was educated in a jesuit school. Together with his brother he participated in the attack against the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953. Like Fidel, he went to prison and into exile. He followed his brother when he decided to return to the largest of the Antilles. Fidel appointed him commander of one of the guerrilla fronts in 1958. A photo from that year depicts him in full body in the Sierra Maestra, blindfolding a man about to be executed. He entered Havana with long hair and a youthful air that he soon denied. His name will be associated with numerous acts of political and cultural intolerance starting in the 1970s.
In 1989, General Arnaldo Ochoa was shot. who a few years earlier had received the exceptional distinction of Hero of the Republic for his military exploits in Africa. He was accused of being related to the illegal economy and, especially, drug trafficking. Other sources claim that the Castros saw a possible competitor in that officer. Raúl was not only one of the promoters of the summary execution but also invoked the figure of “my friend the Georgian”in reference to Stalin, to carry it out.
The relay
Starting with Fidel’s first major health crisis, in 2006, the younger brother gradually began to occupy a good part of his functions. It was his turn, over the years, to serve as the natural heir. He promoted economic reforms that were never fully carried out and, above all, was the protagonist of the normalization of relations with the United States, in 2014. His son Alejandro Castro Espín had played a key role in the secret negotiations with the Barack Obama Administration. “The progress achieved shows that it is possible to reach solutions to many problems. We must learn the art of living in a civilized manner with our differences,” he told Cubans the night in which the reestablishment of bilateral ties broken in the early 1960s was announced. “This does not mean that the main thing has been resolved: the economic blockade must end, although the blockade measures were turned into law, the president of the United States can modify their application.” Two years later, in March 2016, he received Obama in Havana. It was a unique moment not destined to last. There has been no shortage of analysts who attribute to Fidel Castro the role of stopping the economic and political reforms expected by Washington. The Cuban side assures that the arrival of Donald Trumpin 2017, complicated everything.
In 2018 he handed the baton of command to Miguel Díaz-Canel. He would never be a president in his own right but rather the result of a planned continuity with family airs, if by family is understood not only the surname but the Armed Forces and their businesses in different areas of the economy. In 2019, Cuba proclaimed a new Constitution that defends the “irreversible” character of socialism in the country. But the Cuba that was entering the digital age was no longer the one that Raúl knew when he entered Havana in 1959. Although when he turned 90 he came forward with a call to “erase from our minds past prejudices associated with foreign investment”, the economy was never able to take off due to a series of government nonsense. The official explanations about its causes, the North American “blockade”, were never enough. In that 90th anniversary message, Castro also criticized the “resistance to change and the lack of innovative capacity” as well as the “damaging phenomenon of corruption and other illegalities that limit the increase in productivity and efficiency”. The general’s tantrums never achieved the desired effect.
The debacle
The Cuban economy collapsed 11 points in 2020 as a consequence of the pandemic and never recovered. The economic reform known as the monetary reorganization opened the door to the continued impoverishment of those who did not receive remittances from their relatives living in the United States. The social outbreak of 2021 He found Raúl out of the scene and urged to be severe in front of the wayward ones. What came next, the deepening of the crisis, the massive and especially youth exodus, the penury and the blackouts, barely preluded something more dramatic from the fall of Nicolás Maduro and the end of the supply of Venezuelan oil, in January of this year. Trump tightened the energy and political turnstile. Raúl, always behind the scenes, followed the conversations with Washington very closely. It was his nephew, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castroknown as “El Cangrejo”, one of the interlocutors of the Secretary of State’s envoys, Marco Rubioon at least three occasions. Cuba decided to open itself to investments from Cuban migration in companies and even banking. The offer came from Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Minister of Foreign Trade and great nephew of Raúl. Rubio said that it is insufficient.
In the name of the uncle, “the Crab” He also spoke last week in Havana with the head of the CIA, John Ratcliffe. By then, rumors had begun to spread of the possibility of an indictment against the elderly general. And that is what just happened, on May 20th no less. Before 1959, that day was celebrated for the end of the North American occupation and the birth of the Republic, in 1902.
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