Raúl Castro, born in 1931, president of Cuba (2008- ) and head of Cuba’s armed forces during the rule of his brother, Fidel Castro. In 2006 Fidel temporarily handed power to Raúl as he underwent and recovered from surgery to control gastrointestinal bleeding. In February 2008 Fidel announced that he was resigning permanently as president, and the same month the National Assembly elected Raúl as president.

Born in Birán in Cuba’s Oriente Province, Raúl was the youngest of three sons in the Castro family. His father was a Spanish immigrant who made a fortune in Cuba’s sugarcane industry. Like his brother Fidel, Raúl attended the Colegio La Salle and then the Colegio Dolores, both in Santiago de Cuba. He followed Fidel to the Belén Secondary School, a prestigious Jesuit-run school in Havana, but unlike Fidel, Raúl dropped out of the school. Raúl later attended the University of Havana but did not graduate.

While a student in Havana, Raúl became attracted to socialist ideas and traveled briefly in Europe. He attended the Communist-organized World Youth Congress in Vienna, Austria, in 1953, and afterward traveled to Bucharest in Romania, and Prague in what was then Czechoslovakia. Both countries were then allied with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). On his return to Cuba, Raúl applied to join the Juventud Socialista, the youth wing of the Cuban Communist Party.

In 1953 Raúl joined Fidel in an attempt to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista by assaulting the Moncada Barracks, Cuba’s second-largest army base, in Santiago de Cuba. He was captured in the unsuccessful attack, and along with his brother, sentenced to 22 months in prison. Following his release he went to Mexico with Fidel to plan another revolt. During their stay in Mexico, Raúl reportedly introduced Fidel to Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara.

In 1956 the two brothers left Mexico on the yacht Granma with about 80 other rebels to launch their second revolt. Their landing on a Cuban beach ended in disaster as the small rebel group was met by Batista’s forces. Raúl, Fidel, and about a dozen others, however, managed to escape into the Sierra Maestra mountains. Raúl emerged as one of the principal military leaders during the guerrilla campaign that followed. The guerrillas won support from Cuba’s peasants, and the rebel campaign eventually resulted in the overthrow of the Batista regime in 1959.

Following the successful revolution, Raúl became head of the armed forces. He is believed to have been responsible for ordering the executions of nearly 100 military and police officers accused of torture and murder. He was made deputy prime minister in 1962 and first deputy prime minister in 1972. He later became first vice president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers. In 1997 the Cuban Communist Party officially designated him as Fidel’s successor.

Raúl temporarily became the leader of Cuba in 2006 when Fidel underwent surgery and then required a long recovery. In February 2008 Fidel announced that he was unable to resume his duties as president. The same month the National Assembly elected Raúl as the new president of Cuba. Raúl turned over his duties as first vice president and head of the armed forces to other men, while Fidel remained the head of the Cuban Communist Party.

Raúl was married to Vilma Espín, a veteran of the revolution and the head of the Cuban Women’s Federation. The couple had four children. Espín died in 2007.