Raúl Castro reappears at Cuban event amid health rumors

Raúl Castro has reappeared in public at a Cuban military ceremony, after weeks of speculation about his health and an unusual absence from a July rally.

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loyal family

The 95-year-old former president attended an event marking the 65th anniversary of the Directorate of Personal Security, a unit of the armed forces responsible for protecting the country’s top leaders. State television showed Castro arriving on foot alongside senior military officers and taking a seat in the front row of an indoor hall.

He was also shown standing several times to receive an honorary diploma and greet people at the ceremony. Castro sent a letter to members of the security unit, calling them a “loyal family” and praising their work protecting the leaders of the Revolution. Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas read the letter aloud.

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They fell in the line of duty.

The letter referred to 32 people killed in Venezuela on Jan. 3 during a confrontation with U.S. troops amid the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. “They fell in the line of duty,” Castro wrote. He added that “the Revolution is living through difficult days under the hostility of the United States government,” which he said remained determined to make Cuba’s example disappear from the world.

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

President Miguel Díaz-Canel attended the event and posted photographs on X. He called it an honor to participate with Castro and said the ceremony reaffirmed the leadership’s trust and recognition of the men and women who had carried out their duties “without a single failure.” Castro no longer holds formal government or Communist Party posts, but the article says he continues to have a voice in important decisions and rarely appears in public.

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without a single failure