Raul Castro, "Was Sent To Jesuit School"

From Monsters and Critics.com
Americas News
PROFILE: Raul Castro, a revolutionary in his brother's shadow
By Emilio Rappold
Jul 24, 2007, 4:15 GMT

Rio de Janeiro/Havana - For nearly five decades, Raul Castro stood in the shadow of his big brother Fidel - physically, politically and charismatically.

However, on July 31, 2006 - due to surgery on his elder brother for intestinal bleeding - Raul temporarily assumed power over Cuba. The communist island has since largely held its course.

As the island's first vice president, Raul Castro, 76, had long been designated by Fidel and others as first in the line of succession for the Cuban leadership.

But even for Cuba experts, Raul was long an enigma, and there was little agreement on how he would operate as leader of the Caribbean island. Events over the past year, however, have again shown him following very much in his brother's footsteps.

For many Cubans in exile, Raul remains a puppet of the nearly 81- year-old Fidel. If there were any differences of opinion, they never saw the light of day in nearly five decades. Angry exiles in southern Florida, just 150 kilometres north of the island, believe Raul is even more of a Marxist and even more moody and harsh than Fidel.

Among other onlookers, however, Raul inspired hope. Brian Latell, a former US secret agent and expert on Cuba, published a book in late 2005 describing Raul as a pragmatist who, as a possible president, could open a dialogue with the United States and lead a bloodless change in Cuba.

Raul was, after all, the major force behind economic liberalization that began in 1994, which allowed farmers to sell their crops to the public and private citizens to open restaurants and bars. He was also, however, thought partly responsible for the changes being partially reversed a while later.

Most Cubans have been psychologically prepared for Fidel's death and an eventual transfer of power to Raul.

In 2001, after Fidel fainted at a public event, Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque announced to the public: 'Long live Raul, long live Fidel.' In Cuba, everyone knows: after Castro, comes Castro.

Raul is above all a very 'orderly, organized and approachable man,' Cuba's high ranking politician Jose Ramon Fernandez wrote. To the surprise of many, Fernandez added that the media-shy Raul was actually sensitive and funny.

Raul often disappears from the scene for months, and even in Fidel's absence has made few public appearances. When he does appear, he is dressed in an olive green uniform that befits the minister of defence and the country's top military leader.

Born on June 3, 1931, Raul fought side by side with his brother in the Cuban revolutionary struggle that began with a failed coup attempt in 1953, which was followed by jail and later amnesty.

Raul and Fidel fled together to Mexico, but came back to Cuba with 80 supporters on the yacht Granma in 1956, and led a guerrilla war that ended with leader Fulgencio Batista's flight from the country in 1959.

Like his brother, Raul was sent to (read this article it is great!)Jesuit school by his family, which had emigrated to Cuba from Spain. He joined the pro-Moscow Socialist People's Party (PSP) as a young man.

After the 1959 revolution, Raul led the harsh killings of Batista's supporters and orchestrated waves of political purges over the years. As one of the world's longest-serving defence ministers, Raul used Soviet support to build the Cuban military into one of the strongest in Latin America.

Raul led Cuban forces against US-backed exile forces in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of April 17, 1961. He also led the way in transforming the Cuban government into a Soviet-style communist regime, and is believed to have been responsible for arranging the deployment of Soviet long-range missiles in Cuba, which resulted in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

Yet he is also widely cited for a comment that would seem to contradict his military background: 'Beans are more important than cannons.'


© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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