Raúl Castro Absent at Cuba Rally

Cuba marked the anniversary of a pivotal revolutionary attack on Sunday with a traditional rally, but the event was notable for the absence of former President Raúl Castro, 95. It is the first time in at least 30 years that Castro did not attend the event, and no explanation was given for his absence. The rally was presided over by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who read a congratulatory message from Castro to the crowd in the eastern city of Pinar del Río.

The annual event commemorates the July 26, 1953, assault led by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in Cuba’s eastern region, which marked the beginning of the revolutionary struggle that succeeded on January 1, 1959. Castro’s last public appearances were in June during an event to establish the Ministry of the Interior and on May 1 to celebrate Labor Day. Although he no longer holds any formal positions, his symbolic presence remains strong, and he was recently identified as one of the negotiators in talks with the United States following the imposition of a U.S. energy embargo.

In May, Castro was charged in a U.S. indictment with murder and other crimes for his alleged role in the downing of two civilian aircraft operated by Miami-based exiles in 1996 off the coast of the Caribbean island. The accusations were widely rejected by Cuba’s government. During the rally, President Díaz-Canel rejected a report by the U.S.

State Department that accused Cuba of running a leftist espionage and influence network against the United States and Latin America for decades. ‘Every day they issue a threat against the revolution, and every week they announce a new punishment for Cuban companies and officials,’ the president said. Díaz-Canel also criticized the Trump administration’s policy towards Cuba, saying that ‘Cuba is the victim of a coldly calculated genocide.’ He accused the Trump administration of imposing a policy of ‘maximum pressure’ and intensified ‘economic strangulation.’ Cuba is going through one of the worst periods in its historically tense relationship with the United States. Daily blackouts are lasting more than 20 hours, workdays have been reduced, industrial production halted, and shortages of water and medicine are hitting an island already undergoing a severe crisis in the past five years given previous sanctions imposed by the U.S. and an internal financial reform that sparked inflation.

Hotel chains including Spain’s Meliá, payment processors like Visa and Mastercard, and airlines such as Air Canada and Air France have left the island as its economic and financial crises deepen.