Raúl Castro

Raúl Castro, Fidel's younger brother, commanded Cuba's armed forces for decades before formally taking over leadership in the late 2000s. He oversaw some limited economic reforms and a brief thaw in relations with the United States.

Long before he led the country, Raúl was the regime's enforcer. He personally directed early executions in the mountains and at the Santiago de Cuba garrison, where prisoners were shot into mass graves dug in advance. As head of the armed forces and security apparatus he built the machinery of surveillance, military prisons, and forced-labor camps that crushed dissent for half a century.

The limited reforms credited to him never touched the one-party state, the political prisons, or the ban on free speech. Families separated by the Straits still waited years for permission to see one another, and those who spoke out still disappeared into cells.

He handed the presidency to Miguel Díaz-Canel in 2018 and stepped down as Communist Party leader in 2021, marking the first time in decades that a Castro did not formally lead Cuba — though the system of repression he helped construct remained firmly in place.