There’s a man who whispers in Raúl Castro’s ear. He speaks to him through the Could Day parade in Havana or places his arm in the way in which if a lady tries to take the previous president’s hand—as if she wants reassurance that he’s nonetheless alive. When Castro delivered speeches in Revolution Sq.—all the time much less fiery than his brother Fidel’s—this man stood behind him, steadfast within the scorching tropical warmth. When Raúl acquired Pope Francis within the Cuban capital, the identical man was there, watching his each transfer. Those that know him say he’s Castro’s “darling.” Additionally they say he has an additional finger because of a congenital situation, and that his interior circle has given him a nickname: El Cangrejo—The Crab. His identify is Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro; he’s Raúl’s grandson and his bodyguard. For months now, nonetheless, he appears to be guarding one thing far bigger: not simply his grandfather’s again, however the fate of his country.
Rodríguez Castro has turn into the bodyguard not solely of Castro but additionally of the negotiations between Cuba and america. El Cangrejo has been current on the talks which have been happening because the begin of the yr—talks Cuba initially denied had been taking place. El Cangrejo traveled to the Caribbean Neighborhood (CARICOM) summit to fulfill with advisers to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. When President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged for the primary time in March that they had been negotiating with the Trump administration, El Cangrejo was there. El Cangrejo was noticed in a solemn place on the farewell ceremony for the Cuban army personnel killed through the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro. El Cangrejo took half within the go to of U.S. officers to Havana on April 10, throughout which Cuba was offered with an ultimatum to launch political prisoners—one it failed to fulfill. And this previous Thursday, when the head of the CIA landed on the island to “critically tackle financial and safety points,” El Cangrejo couldn’t be absent.
Even so, virtually no Cuban immediately can clarify what function Rodríguez Castro performs in the mean time of biggest stress in many years between Washington and Havana. Individuals barely know the way he speaks, what his voice seems like, or what he thinks or believes. “El Cangrejo issues as a result of he’s household, not as a result of he has any particular person political capital of his personal, past being a trusted member of a household clan,” says Cuban mental Alina Bárbara López.
As soon as, in 2017, a younger man was noticed on a platform at Varadero seashore, sweating, singing, and dancing to the reggaeton beat of the favored duo Gente de Zona. He would have gone unnoticed had been it not for what was written on his shirt: he was carrying a New York Yankees jersey with the phrases “El Cangrejo” emblazoned throughout it in giant letters. Different extravagances from these years additionally drew consideration: yacht journeys, lobster fishing, VIP events, flights on non-public planes.
But individuals nonetheless know little or no about Rodríguez Castro past what he and his household have chosen to disclose. Juan Almeida García, son of the late Cuban Vice President Juan Almeida Bosque, who grew up in Raúl’s family as a baby, says that El Cangrejo is with out query “his favourite grandson.” Being the firstborn grandson, mixed with the insecurities he carried from being born with a sixth finger, led Castro to be fiercely overprotective. “Raúl Castro has all the time been very hooked up to him, and the boy grew up with a moderately exaggerated diploma of safety from his grandfather,” says Almeida, who was current on the day of his beginning—March 24, 1984.
Now 41, Rodríguez Castro is the son of Raul’s daughter Deborah and the late Normal Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, the person who constructed the GAESA army and financial conglomerate and who died all of the sudden in 2022. Rodríguez López-Calleja was a determine who was extensively thought of a possible future chief of Cuba. He studied on the Los Camilitos army academy, graduated with a level in Accounting and Finance from the College of Havana, and in 2016 was appointed lieutenant colonel within the Ministry of the Inside and head of Castro’s Private Safety Directorate.
Though Castro made him his bodyguard, in actuality, “the grandfather is the one who takes care of the grandson and never the grandson who takes care of the grandfather,” says Almeida, who assures that El Cangrejo cultivated a “fairly selfish” persona.
For a very long time, individuals couldn’t guess who the younger man who was all the time seen guarding Raúl was. Right this moment, he’s invisible to nobody. Maidelys Solano, who’s at present determined due to the facility outage in her Bayamo neighborhood, has heard numerous speak recently about El Cangrejo. “Individuals know who he’s, and lots of say he’s the one who’s going to steer the transition in Cuba; that’s what everybody’s saying. However I believe he has to go too, as a result of he’s additionally benefited from all this,” she says.
Amidst negotiations that escalate and de-escalate every month, the place Havana denies particulars that Washington asserts and the place secrecy retains Cubans on edge, many questions come up surrounding the determine of El Cangrejo: What’s the function of somebody who holds no institutional or political workplace, at the least not publicly? Or why is he a continuing presence within the dialogues with Washington, during which, for instance, Díaz-Canel has by no means been seen, nor has his uncle, Alejandro Castro Espín?
For Cuban historian and author Enrique del Risco, a number of prospects exist: “The obvious is that El Cangrejo is a frontman for Alejandro Castro Espín, till a number of years in the past Raúl’s clearest successor,” he maintains. Espín, Castro’s solely son, mediated through the talks with the Barack Obama administration that led to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, however disappeared from public view after the so-called Havana Syndrome affair.
The opposite risk del Risco sees is that El Cangrejo “is being groomed because the true successor to the dynasty, and regardless of by no means having held any authorities place, they wish to current him to society as a brand new determine of energy.” “His presence within the dialogues could be justified by the necessity to make investments him with an authority he hasn’t acquired till now as a member of the Castro regime. The truth that nobody inside the regime dares to query the choice to make him a consultant of the Cuban authorities with out ever having been a part of it offers us an concept of absolutely the lack of judgment of a regime {that a} household runs as if it had been their very own non-public enterprise,” the historian asserts.
The hidden energy in Cuba
The CIA arrived in Havana with a mission: to personally convey President Trump’s message that america is prepared to significantly tackle financial and safety points, however provided that Cuba makes elementary adjustments, an company official advised Fox Information, including that El Cangrejo had participated within the assembly.
Though it has been confirmed that Castro’s grandson is a part of the negotiation course of, the picture launched by the CIA focuses on Ramón Romero Curbelo, the top of intelligence providers in Cuba, a face that Cubans barely acknowledge or wouldn’t think about could possibly be the one calling the pictures within the nation. The picture has delivered to the forefront of public debate a query that is still unanswerable: Who actually runs the island immediately, or is the facility construction even identifiable?
The mental Alina Bárbara Rodríguez, who has instantly confronted repression, claims to have observed what she calls “a proper and an off-the-cuff energy” on the island. The previous is occupied by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, together with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, and others who maintain positions within the authorities or the Communist Get together. The latter energy is unnameable. “It’s that hidden, deep, casual state; it’s tough to know as a result of it’s not designed for us to know. Nevertheless it’s clear that there’s a really shut relationship between them, one which includes household, patronage, and a technocratic army construction. And Curbelo’s determine is prime to that equipment. That’s why not one of the individuals linked to the formal state are current at crucial conferences,” Rodríguez maintains.
Past the assertion from the Communist Get together of Cuba, which insists that the assembly with the CIA made it clear that Cuba doesn’t characterize a risk to U.S. nationwide safety, the encounter with the company’s director, John Ratcliffe, leaves a number of implicit messages. “First, it confirms that there’s an effort on the a part of the U.S. authorities to provide some form of change in Cuba, past what earlier administrations have accomplished,” asserts historian and political scientist Armando Chaguaceda. “Whether or not that change interprets into an financial shift, a step towards capitalism, with a political realignment in favor of the U.S. with out democratization—which isn’t the objective for which we Cubans have fought—stays to be seen.”
