Raúl Castro appears at public event in Cuba amid health rumors

Raúl Castro reappeared in public in Cuba to energetic applause and military cheers, ending a week of rumors about his health that had circulated in foreign media and on social networks.

The former president attended a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the Interior Ministry’s Personal Security Directorate, according to a report by state television news. He appeared alongside the Cuban leadership, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who takes part in negotiations with Washington.

Castro’s presence countered speculation that he had been hospitalized after a stroke or had died. He and his brother Fidel Castro helped establish the security directorate in 1961. The organization protects Cuba’s main leaders.

Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas read a letter from Raúl Castro at the ceremony. In it, Castro praised the agency’s work and highlighted the 32 Cubans who died on Jan. 3 while trying to protect former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“The Revolution lives through difficult days under the hostility of the United States government, which continues determined to make Cuba’s example disappear from the world,” Castro wrote, referring to the island’s severe economic crisis. The article said the crisis had worsened since January because of Washington’s oil blockade and sanctions.

Castro was also formally accused in the United States on May 20 over the 1996 downing of two aircraft belonging to a Cuban exile organization, which killed their four crew members. Washington has said it wants to bring him before a court. At the same time, bilateral talks involving his grandson have placed the former president back at the center of political attention, despite his formal departure from the country’s leadership in 2018 and from the Communist Party leadership in 2021.

His age, 95, and infrequent public appearances regularly fuel speculation about his health.

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The Revolution lives through difficult days under the hostility of the United States government, which continues determined to make Cuba’s example disappear from the world.