MIAMI — Ruben Hernandez and Alfredo Robert stopped for Cuban coffee on Wednesday morning in Miami’s Little Havana. There was one subject of conversation at Versailles Ventanita.

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The Cuban Americans took a moment to ponder the island’s future without Raúl Castro, who still has the Cuban military rank of “General of the Army” and a symbolic seat as a deputy in the National Assembly.

“They are going to do a beautiful funeral, and then Donald Trump will handle the rest,” Hernandez said.

Castro, 95, who served as Cuba’s president for about a decade and as the defense minister for about 50 years, was hospitalized, according to sources in communication with Local 10 News Analyst Andy Gomez, the former director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban Studies.

Cuban officials remained silent on Wednesday after the Diario Las Américas, a Miami-based newspaper in Spanish, reported on Tuesday that Castro, who formally retired in April 2021, had suffered a stroke and was on life support.

“The more things change, the more they remain the same, so I don’t think there is going to be much of a change in Cuba. That’s the sad part,” Robert said. “I still have family members there and I don’t think they are going to see any benefit out of this.”

Castro’s last public appearance was on June 6 at a ceremony to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior. He did not attend the official annual event to commemorate the historic assault of July 26, 1953.

Related report: Cuban officials remain silent despite reports of Raúl Castro being hospitalized

Before communism

Castro was born on June 3, 1931, in the village of Birán, in Cuba’s Holguín province. His father, Angel Castro, was born in Spain, and his mother, Lina Ruz González, was born in Cuba.

Castro was the youngest of seven: Two brothers, Fidel and Ramon, and four sisters, Angela, Juana, Emma, and Agustina. He was a student at Catholic Jesuit schools, the Colegio Dolores in Santiago and the Colegio de Belén in Havana.

Castro attended the University of Havana. He was a member of the Socialist Youth, a group of the Popular Socialist Party, and participated in the guerrilla campaign in the Sierra Maestra.

Guerrilla fighter

Castro was arrested after the guerrilla attack on the Moncada military barracks on July 26, 1953, and was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but he only served 22 months.

Castro received then-Cuban President Fulgencio Batista’s amnesty, and he was released from the Presidio Modelo prison on May 15, 1955, at the Isle of Pines.

Castro went into exile in Mexico. In 1956, in Mexico City, Castro met Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who had graduated from the University of Buenos Aires Medical School in 1953.

Castro, his brother Fidel, and Guevara were on board the yacht Granma that landed with dozens of guerrilla fighters on Dec. 2, 1956, in eastern Cuba’s Playas Las Coloradas.

Castro joined his brother, Guevara, and fellow guerrilla fighters in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The group overthrew Batista, who then fled Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959.

Castro married Vilma Lucila Espín Guillois, a fellow guerrilla fighter who was born in Santiago de Cuba, on Jan. 26, 1959. The couple had four children: Three daughters, Déborah in 1960; Mariela in 1962; and Nilsa; and one son, Alejandro, in 1965.

Rise to power

As his brother rose to power, Castro was named Cuba’s minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in 1959.

In 1996, Castro ordered the shootdown of civilian aircraft with Brothers to the Rescue pilots and crew members. The Cuban Air Force struck and killed Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.

Castro became Cuba’s provisional head of state on July 31, 2006. His wife, Espín Guillois, died on June 18, 2007.

Castro also served as the acting president of Cuba’s Council of State and the Council of Ministers from 2006 to 2008. The National Assembly elected him president on Feb. 24, 2008.

In 2011, Castro was elected as the first secretary of the Communist Party. In 2013, the National Assembly elected him to a second five-year term.

In 2014, Castro announced the start of normalizing relations with the U.S., and negotiated with Russia to cancel 90% of a debt that had started with the Soviet Union.

Castro welcomed then-U.S. President Barack Obama and then First Lady Michelle Obama to Havana on March 20, 2016.

Fidel Castro died on Nov. 25, 2016, at 90 years old.

Castro served as president until April 19, 2018, when Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, his handpicked successor, replaced him.

In 2021, Castro stepped down as the leader of the Communist Party, and Díaz-Canel Bermúdez also replaced him.

While wielding power behind the scenes, Castro has continued to make public appearances in his military uniform.

On April 23, a U.S. federal grand jury in Miami indicted Raúl Castro for his role in the 1996 Cuban military strikes on two unarmed Cessnas with four members of Brothers to the Rescue.

On May 20, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed the charges: Conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of an aircraft.

Castro did not make or release a statement about the charges.

Related report: Latest updates from Local 10 Cuba Analyst Dr. Andy Gomez

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