标签： Cuba

On June 5, 2026, at Havana’s Karl Marx Theater, Cuban President and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez delivered a keynote address marking two landmark moments of national revolutionary significance: the 95th birthday of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, and the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT). The event, held on Cuba’s National Defense Day, unfolded against the backdrop of escalating unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States government, which Díaz-Canel framed as a genocidal campaign against the Cuban people.

Díaz-Canel opened by extending official congratulations to Raúl Castro on behalf of Cuba’s Party, government, civil society organizations and entire population, emphasizing that the dual commemoration is far more than a coincidental alignment of dates on the revolutionary calendar. It reflects the deep, inseparable bond between Raúl Castro’s decades-long revolutionary legacy and the founding of MININT. The origins of MININT, formally established on June 6, 1961, trace directly to the guerrilla command structures built during Cuba’s revolutionary war, specifically the Secret Service Corps of the 26th of July Revolutionary Army General Staff in the liberated territories of the Frank País Second Eastern Front. The order creating that rebel security unit was signed by a 27-year-old Raúl Castro, then commander of the Second Front.

Historical records preserved in Raúl Castro’s Selected Works reveal the young commander’s early strategic insight: he mandated the security body identify and counter “everything that could affect, compromise, or endanger the security of our rebel forces.” This foundational commitment to perpetual vigilance, proactive threat assessment, and unwavering defense of revolutionary gains and the Cuban people has defined Raúl Castro’s entire revolutionary career, Díaz-Canel noted. Alongside Fidel Castro, Raúl has served as a lifelong mentor and inspiration for MININT combatants and members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).

In response to recent baseless slander and unlawful attacks against Raúl launched from anti-Cuban extremist networks based in Florida, Díaz-Canel highlighted the viral spread of the phrase “Raúl is Raúl” across Cuban social media and public life. Adapted from a phrase Raúl himself once used to describe Fidel, the slogan underscores Raúl’s irreplaceable role in Cuban history: a pillar of the nation’s unyielding dignity in the face of U.S. hegemony, who has never lowered Cuba’s flag, abandoned its revolutionary ideals, or surrendered to external pressure. “Raúl is Cuba, and Cuba is untouchable,” Díaz-Canel declared, noting that as long as a single Cuban stands to defend the nation, it will remain unbroken.

Beyond national leadership, Díaz-Canel celebrated Raúl’s far-reaching contributions to global diplomacy and justice for the Global South. Raúl was the architect of the historic Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, a framework that today faces direct assault from the current U.S. administration’s resuscitation of the Monroe Doctrine and interventionist warmongering. He also served as a successful mediator in the Colombian peace process that produced the landmark 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC, and facilitated the first high-level meeting between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church after centuries of division. Most notably, Raúl patiently guided the opening of normalized relations between Cuba and the United States in the 2010s—a path unilaterally cut off in 2017 by anti-Cuban factions in Washington that now push for dangerous military confrontation.

Díaz-Canel also highlighted Raúl’s personal character: a devoted family man, loyal friend, and consistent leader who retains his proverbial wisdom and guidance for the Cuban people at 95. On Raúl’s behalf, he conveyed gratitude to the Cuban people for the outpouring of solidarity and affection that greeted Raúl’s birthday, a response that directly pushed back against imperialist smears, as well as to international friends who have stood with Cuba amid threats of reprisal for their support. “No hatred, no lie will ever be able to stand against his moral strength and the high symbolic value of the revolutionary work that he has led with exemplary firmness,” Díaz-Canel said.

Turning to the 65th anniversary of MININT, Díaz-Canel paid tribute to founding leader Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, a revolutionary commander whose legacy has shaped the institution from its inception. Over more than six decades, MININT has operated alongside the FAR as an unyielding bulwark against constant aggression from U.S. imperialism, which has deployed every tactic imaginable against Cuba: armed infiltration, sabotage, terrorism, biological warfare, assassination plots, economic subversion, media manipulation, and ideological warfare, all directed and funded by U.S. intelligence agencies. Despite decades of relentless, undeclared war, Díaz-Canel noted, the Revolution remains standing, in no small part because of MININT’s service as tireless sentinels of the homeland. Each generation of MININT combatants has distinguished itself by unwavering loyalty and courage in the face of even the harshest challenges.

Díaz-Canel highlighted the bravery of recent MININT fallen heroes: 32 MININT members killed in Venezuela in January, who fought with ferocity against a surprise attack even when outnumbered and outgunned, leaving a legacy of courage that demonstrates how all Cubans will defend the homeland if attacked. Shortly after that attack, five Border Guard Troops members defeated a 10-person terrorist infiltration team armed with a large cache of weapons, neutralizing the plot even as the vessel commander fought on despite grave wounds. Beyond national security, MININT has also stood with the Cuban people during times of natural disaster, including high-risk rescue operations during the severe flooding caused by Hurricane Melissa that remain fresh in the national memory. “To all of them, the profound admiration and infinite gratitude of the Cuban people,” Díaz-Canel said.

Addressing all compatriots, Díaz-Canel stressed that Cuba is currently facing its most intense period of threat from U.S. imperialism, which seeks to subdue the Revolution and destroy Cuban independence through a campaign that meets the definition of genocide and a crime against humanity. After implementing a total energy blockade via executive order on January 29, which cut off 39 of 40 requested fuel shipments to Cuba in the first five months of 2026, the U.S. further tightened sanctions on May 1 in retaliation for a massive popular demonstration of support for the Cuban Revolution. The new sanctions impose harsh fines, asset seizures, and threats on any company, bank, or individual that trades with Cuba or supplies even basic goods like food, medicine, and hygiene products. Díaz-Canel noted that the recent wave of companies exiting Cuba is a direct result of these coercive measures, which rely on a fabricated smear campaign against Cuba’s state enterprise system (GAE) that lacks any evidence to back its claims of corruption. The attack on GAE is intentional: the system has proven remarkably effective at sustaining Cuban development amid the decades-long blockade, just as earlier attacks on Cuba’s renowned international medical collaboration relied on falsehoods to cut off a vital source of funding for Cuba’s free universal public healthcare system.

Díaz-Canel condemned the United States’ brazen denial of its crimes against the Cuban people, noting that the current U.S. ruling clique cannot even defend its lies to its own Congress, where its corruption and plunder of public funds has been exposed. Resorting to classic Nazi-era disinformation tactics and modern hybrid warfare strategies, the U.S. spreads lies to confuse global public opinion, fabricate pretexts for aggression, and invert responsibility for Cuba’s economic challenges: blaming a “failed socialist state” for problems that are directly caused by the blockade. Díaz-Canel emphasized that Cuba does not ignore its own shortcomings, but a nation cut off from access to food, medicine, fuel, international finance, and credit cannot be expected to function normally. The shortages of essential goods, prolonged blackouts, transportation crises, and tourism declines all stem directly from the U.S. blockade, not from failures of the socialist system. “What the empire calls a failed state is, in reality, a state under attack and refusing to surrender,” he declared to applause.

Cuba has no intention of surrendering its independence, Díaz-Canel stressed. The Cuban people will not yield to U.S. pressure to become a client state of the United States, and their unyielding persistence is what makes them intolerable to the imperial project. Cuba continues to seek peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding with the United States despite political differences, but will not hesitate to respond with legitimate self-defense if the homeland is attacked. “If they try to enter, let there be no doubt: There will be a decisive and resolute fight,” he said.

Díaz-Canel closed by recalling that 65 years ago, just days after MININT was founded, the newly formed agency dismantled a CIA plot codenamed “Patty” that aimed to assassinate Raúl Castro in Santiago de Cuba and stage a false-flag attack on the Guantánamo Naval Base to justify a full U.S. military invasion. The successful counter-operation, codenamed “Candela,” was one of MININT’s first major victories, saving Raúl’s life and exposing U.S. aggression. Today, as old plots against the Revolution are reinvented, Díaz-Canel affirmed that Cuba’s resolve and confidence in victory remains undiminished.

Closing with the traditional revolutionary slogans, the address ended with chants of “Homeland or Death! We shall overcome! Long live Fidel and Raúl! Long live the Ministry of the Interior! Long live socialism! Long live a free Cuba!”

On Thursday, June 5, 2026, Cuban President and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez undertook an official visit to the unique Hermanos Martínez Tamayo Vocational Pre-University Institute, operated by the country’s Ministry of the Interior (Minint) in Havana’s Playa municipality. He was joined on the visit by Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, Minint Minister, Army Corps General and member of the Communist Party Political Bureau.

The visit came at the direct request of a student from the institute, who raised the invitation during a previous public event where the two leaders crossed paths. During an open, heartfelt exchange with students, graduates, faculty and institutional leadership, Díaz-Canel offered high praise for the institute’s educational framework, labeling it a “distinct, innovative, and demanding educational model” that aligns with the revolutionary vision first laid out by Fidel Castro during the development of the Battle of Ideas initiative.

Díaz-Canel told attendees he was particularly impressed by the institute’s ability to maintain its high standards of operation for decades, including through the ongoing challenging period that has strained educational systems across Cuba. He noted that the Ministry of the Interior, already widely recognized by the Cuban people for its critical public service, has extra reason to take pride in hosting such an exceptional educational institution.

Commenting on the institute’s well-maintained, orderly and welcoming campus, the president emphasized that holistic education extends far beyond textbook curriculum. Physical environments that nurture and inspire the spirit, he explained, are a core component of meaningful learning that prepares young people for public life.

Throughout the conversation, which preceded a guided tour of the institute’s classrooms and research laboratories, Díaz-Canel stressed the ongoing importance of fostering critical thinking, revolutionary commitment, and well-rounded personal development to prepare young Cubans to contribute to the country’s socialist construction project as engaged, responsible citizens. After hearing personal accounts from students, professional insights from graduates, and reflections from teaching staff, the president noted that the visit offered a critical morale boost amid the country’s current complex context, which has been shaped by persistent external aggression from the United States. “Talking with you, seeing your willingness, your commitment, your training, and the way you express yourselves, also reaffirms the feelings of appreciation one has for this institution. This strengthens us greatly and also gives us a lot of energy,” he stressed.

Díaz-Canel extended an invitation to students to join the Community Youth Network, a new grassroots initiative that organizes Cuban youth for neighborhood-focused public service work. He also urged attendees to prioritize rigorous study, deep exploration of history and science, and independent inquiry, explaining that these practices build the knowledge and critical perspective needed to make thoughtful, informed decisions that benefit the nation. The conversation also included open discussion of the severe economic and social strain placed on Cuba by the United States’ long-running suffocating embargo policy.

In comments to reporters following the visit, institute director Colonel Vivian Sabuquet Larrondo outlined the institution’s 22-year legacy of public service. As the only pre-university of its kind in Cuba, the school holds a unique mission: training the next generation of Minint officers and personnel, while also preparing graduates who choose to pursue civilian higher education. To date, more than 4,000 young people have graduated from the program, many of whom now serve in the Ministry of the Interior.

Sabuquet Larrondo explained that the institute delivers a fully holistic education that integrates patriotic formation, military preparation, physical education, cultural programming, athletic opportunities, and cutting-edge instruction in technology and scientific development. Students enter the institution between the ages of 14 and 15, graduate at 17, and learn from a faculty of highly experienced educators who bring strong professional expertise and a deep commitment to core revolutionary values. Beyond academics, the school instills foundational life skills including disciplined coexistence, strong work ethic, solidarity, humanism, and patriotism, with ongoing support from students’ family members. “I think the most important thing is the contribution we have made, not only to the Ministry of the Interior, but also to society,” Sabuquet Larrondo noted.

On June 3, 2026, Cuban President and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez published a warm, heartfelt birthday tribute on his official Twitter account to mark the 95th birthday of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, a foundational leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his public message, Díaz-Canel lavished praise on Castro, highlighting the many roles he has filled across his decades of public and private life: a loving son, loyal sibling, devoted husband, caring father and grandfather, trusted friend, and a leader who combines high expectations for public service with sincere, deep affection for the Cuban people. He described Castro as a bold, intrepid revolutionary fighter, a foundational leader of the nation’s progressive movement, and the unwavering guardian of the Cuban Revolution’s core values and principles. “He is a true Cuban, in every sense of the word,” Díaz-Canel emphasized in his post. The Cuban leader went on to note that Raúl Castro’s 95 years of life, spent in constant service to the Cuban homeland and dedicated to advancing global peace, multilateral cooperation, and the pursuit of universal social justice, are not just a personal milestone — they are a gift to the entire Cuban nation. “To reach 95 years of age still actively committed to public service, with an unmatched legacy of sacrifice and service to the Homeland, to regional and world peace, to multilateralism, and to the dreams of social justice for millions of human beings, is not his good fortune — it is ours,” Díaz-Canel wrote. He closed the tribute by emphasizing the deep mutual affection between Castro and the Cuban people, noting that the enduring love the revolutionary leader has extended to his compatriots has been returned a thousandfold in the warm wishes that greet him on his birthday. No animosity from external or internal critics, he asserted, can ever pierce the thick, protective shield of widespread public affection that surrounds Castro. The tribute, originally reported by Cuban state-owned newspaper Granma, was accompanied by an official photo produced by Estudios Revolución, and has been circulated widely across social media platforms among Cuban political circles and supporters of the revolution.

On June 3, 2026, Cubans across the island marked a milestone that is more than a birthday: the 95th birthday of Raúl Castro, a revolutionary leader whose legacy has been woven into the very identity of the Cuban nation. For Cubans, his name carries a uniquely intimate weight, comparable to that of a beloved father or brother, earned through a lifetime of service and sacrifice rather than title alone.

Raúl’s journey into the pages of Cuban history began as a young man, when he accompanied his older brother Fidel to Havana. What started as a move to continue his studies evolved into a shared dream: dismantling the systemic injustice that defined Cuban society at the time. That revolution was never an easy, quick victory. It demanded the ultimate sacrifice from thousands of Cubans in their youth, who set aside personal ambitions to fight for collective freedom that would open the door to opportunity for all generations that followed.

Raúl stood among the core leaders who delivered that new dawn for Cuba. Even as foreign imperial narratives have sought to undermine his contributions, his life’s work remains unblemished in the eyes of the Cuban people. His legacy is rooted in quiet simplicity, a trait of genuine modesty that has come to define his iconic status, rather than the grandeur often claimed by leaders of global revolutions.

His courage was proven in some of the revolution’s earliest, most dangerous moments: during the 1953 Moncada Barracks attack, he charged the leading officer of the regime’s forces in the Palace of Justice, wrested away his weapon, and saved the lives of his captured comrades. When the revolution’s core leadership was forced into exile in Mexico, it was Raúl who took on the logistical work to prepare the Granma yacht expedition, the 82 revolutionaries that sailed back to Cuba to launch the guerrilla war that would overthrow the Batista tyranny.

After landing, Raúl led one of the fractured groups that broke through government sieges to reunite with Fidel in Cinco Palmas. He fought in the decisive battles to seize the La Plata and Uvero barracks, founded the iconic Second Eastern Front named for fallen revolutionary leader Frank País, and took on the role of Chief of Oriente Province immediately after the revolutionary triumph of 1959.

Even amid the brutal uncertainty of guerrilla war, when death could come at any moment, Raúl kept a detailed diary of key events, never lost his characteristic sense of humor, and never wavered in his unshakable faith in Cuba’s future. Beyond the battlefield, he has been defined by personal loyalty: he kept a promise to fallen comrade José Luis Tasende, raising Tasende’s young daughter as his own after Tasende died in combat. He was the devoted husband of Vilma Espín, a legendary revolutionary figure who remains etched into national memory, a loving father to his children, served as Cuba’s Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces for nearly 50 years, and holds the highest honor of Hero of the Republic of Cuba as General of the Army of the Cuban Revolution.

When Fidel Castro stepped back from national leadership due to illness in 2006, Raúl stepped forward to guide the nation. In 2008, the National Assembly of People’s Power appointed him President of the Councils of State and Ministers, and he was later elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba. On the global stage, he emerged as a leading voice for unity and peace across Latin America and the Caribbean, and led the historic process of normalizing diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States after decades of tension. Domestically, he has long been a dedicated advocate for the well-being of Cuban children, particularly those living with disabilities, and has frequently joined them at events at the Solidarity with Panama School. After Fidel’s death in 2016, it was Raúl who carried forward his brother’s revolutionary vision, ideas, and unfinished work.

When he stepped down from his role as head of the Communist Party of Cuba in 2021, he left the world a lasting phrase that still defines him today: he remains at 95, rifle in hand, “with his foot in the stirrup”, ready to answer the call to serve his nation whenever it is needed.

Across Cuba today, the simple phrase “Raúl is Raúl” circulates widely as birthday tributes pour in. For a people who know their Army General well, this simple repetition is no redundancy. It is a recognition that his name itself is enough to sum up a lifetime of revolutionary service, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment to the Cuban people.

On the occasion of Raúl Castro Ruz’s 95th birthday, a new reflection from Granma journalist Daily Sánchez Lemus honors the Cuban revolutionary leader’s decades-long, deeply rooted connection to the island’s younger generations — a bond that has always stretched far beyond the formal obligations of his decades of public office. As the piece highlights, Raúl has never been merely a senior leader guiding youth; he has always carried the spirit of a young revolutionary himself, one forged in the earliest struggles for Cuban independence from tyranny.

The article opens with a powerful, enduring quote drawn from Raúl’s 1990 speech ahead of the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, delivered on the anniversary of the Protest of Baraguá. In these words, Raúl frames the core test of Cuba’s ideological work: can younger generations stand ready to carry forward the revolutionary legacy, answering the fundamental questions that define Cuban national identity: Who are we? Where do our roots lie? To whom do we owe our freedom? What legacy must we prove worthy of? What contribution do we owe to the homeland?

These words are not just abstract political guidance — they are drawn from Raúl’s own lived experience as a young revolutionary. A member of Cuba’s Centennial Generation, Raúl stood alongside his older brother Fidel in the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, turned 25 in Mexican exile while planning the invasion that would overthrow the Batista dictatorship, and spent years of his youth away from family, fighting for a just cause. He spent New Year’s celebrations imprisoned on the Isle of Pines in 1953 and 1954, in exile in 1955, and waging guerrilla war across Cuba’s mountains from 1956 to 1958. By the age of just 28, he was serving as a young minister in the new revolutionary government, a role he poured his entire self into for decades. In his guerrilla campaign diary, he even noted that a wartime Valentine’s Day was dedicated entirely to his love for Cuba.

Bold, unapologetically Marxist, fiercely loyal to the Cuban people, quick-witted, and deeply sensitive to systemic injustice, Raúl carried that youthful revolutionary spirit across decades. Even as his hair grayed, he remained young at heart among both veteran revolutionaries and new generations of activists just beginning their own revolutionary journeys.

In that same 1990 speech, Raúl laid bare the persistent threat facing the Cuban Revolution from global imperialism. He warned that at the time, Western powers were pushing a narrative of irreversible socialism in crisis, and were counting on Cuba — geographically close to the United States and long targeted by Washington — to collapse and surrender. “Blinded by their triumphalist intoxication, they calculate that Cuba, seemingly isolated in its geographic proximity to the United States, will not be able to resist and will have to surrender,” he said. “They lie in wait for the slightest crack to launch an attack against our homeland and thus fulfill one of their dearest imperial dreams: to crush the Cuban Revolution, eliminate its example, and forever subjugate the people who dared to defy them.”

This persistent external pressure, the article emphasizes, makes investing in youth development and ideological continuity all the more critical. The revolutionary struggle that Fidel Castro once called the “true destiny” of Cuban revolutionaries must be carried forward by each new generation, and preparing those generations to defend Cuban sovereignty is the only way to protect the project of social justice launched in 1959 — the realization of Cuban national icon José Martí’s long-held dream.

Across all of his senior roles, from head of Cuba’s Armed Forces to Second Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee, Raúl’s connection to young people has always been personal and authentic. He has continuously sought to learn from new generations, collaborate with them as equal team members, stand alongside them in shared labor from cutting sugarcane to mountain expeditions, support global solidarity efforts with other marginalized peoples across the world, evaluate new strategies without abandoning core revolutionary principles, and ensure the movement itself never loses the urgent, courageous momentum of the guerrilla struggle that has held imperial aggression at bay for more than 60 years. For Raúl, just as for Fidel, it is non-negotiable that younger Cubans know their nation’s full history, so that they can love it and defend it with conviction.

Raúl stands as a mentor to young Cubans and emerging revolutionary leaders, teaching core values through consistent example: that a legitimate, lasting revolution is built through collective sacrifice and independent struggle against the enemies of national sovereignty. He has long emphasized that for the people of Latin America, often called “Our America” in revolutionary discourse, veneration of the United States powers that have repeatedly intervened to oppress the region is a mark of deep national and human degradation — a truth proven by long centuries of history.

As Cuba prepares to mark Raúl’s 95th birthday, the article argues that his early guidance on youth and revolutionary continuity remains a compass for the current moment. Today, as the nation marks the centenary of Fidel Castro’s birth, it calls on all Cubans to embrace the shared legacy of unity, anti-imperialism, national independence, and social justice that Raúl continues to defend alongside the Cuban people, just as the young mambí independence fighters who stood with General Antonio Maceo at Baraguá did more than a century ago. In keeping the revolutionary legacy alive, every Cuban must contribute the same level of sacrifice and love that the nation’s long history of struggle deserves.

As June 3 approaches, one of Cuba’s most iconic revolutionary figures, Raúl Castro, is preparing to mark his 95th birthday. Turning 95 is a rare milestone that demands a rare combination of good health, unyielding resilience, and that signature stubborn determination deeply rooted in Cuban identity — a milestone that can only be described as a profound blessing. For Raúl, these 95 years have not been decades of quiet living: they have been 95 years of unbroken commitment to the revolutionary cause, a lifetime spent standing firm in the struggle, much like the legendary Cuban independence fighters Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez who came before him.

Even young Cuban schoolchildren know the deeply personal, approachable side of the man who has shaped their nation’s modern history. Journalist Pastor Batista Valdés, author of this tribute, notes that in every public appearance among working-class Cuban people, Raúl has consistently prioritized connection over ceremony. He is often seen lifting children into his arms, exchanging warm, witty banter with them — a habit he formed back during the tense, decisive days of the Sierra Maestra guerrilla campaign, where a famous photo still captures him crouching gently to speak with a young peasant girl. He also regularly gives away his own pens to young Cubans, once telling a small child named Denisbel in Guayabal, Las Tunas, that the gift was so they could write a letter to Fidel Castro once they learned to read and write.

This lifelong warmth is paired with a lifetime of unwavering loyalty. From the earliest days of the revolutionary movement, Raúl stood as Fidel’s closest and most reliable companion. While still a young man, he bore the full weight of the guerrilla struggle’s harshest hardships with a steady wisdom beyond his years. It is no exaggeration to say that no leader has ever held more firmly to a vow: Raúl vowed he would never fail the Commander-in-Chief, because failing Fidel would have meant failing all of Cuba, failing his own parents Lina and Ángel, and failing himself — a vow he has kept for decades.

That vow carried him through every turning point of the revolution: he stood on the front lines of the 1953 Moncada Barracks attack, gave everything he had to the cause through the subsequent imprisonment, the exile in Mexico, the cramped, dangerous voyage of the Granma yacht alongside 81 other rebel fighters, the brutal early guerrilla engagements in the mangroves of Las Coloradas, Alegría de Pío, and Cinco Palmas. When Fidel entrusted him with command of the Segundo Frente (Second Front) in eastern Cuba, Raúl turned the territory into a model of revolutionary governance, a blueprint for the island’s future after victory.

Few heads of state or military leaders around the world can claim the same depth of grassroots admiration, respect, and affection that Raúl holds among the Cuban people. For Cubans across past, present, and future generations, he will forever be remembered as the people’s Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces — a leader with an innate martial spirit and strategic skill, profound human empathy, sharp distinctly Cuban humor, and a charisma that cannot be weakened by hostile foreign pressure. Even as a hostile foreign empire continues its unrelenting, increasingly unsteady attacks on Cuba and its leaders, Raúl’s example remains unshaken: a reminder that true courage and unwavering commitment will never be defeated.

On the anniversary of Cuba’s formal legal proceedings against the U.S. government seeking compensation for human harm from decades of anti-revolutionary terror, the full scope of the violence that has shaped the island nation’s modern history remains a raw, unhealed wound for generations of Cuban families.

This history of state-sponsored aggression began within months of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, when U.S. authorities viewed a sovereign socialist government 90 miles from its shores as an unacceptable threat. Under the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. government formally approved a covert action program against the new revolutionary government in March 1960, allocating substantial funding to build armed opposition networks and carry out destabilizing attacks across the island. That decision planted the roots of widespread terrorism that would cost hundreds of lives and leave irreversible pain across Cuban communities for decades.

The casualty list of this anti-revolutionary campaign includes dozens of innocent civilians, many of them children, cut down in unprovoked attacks by U.S.-funded armed gangs. In January 1963, 11-year-old Yolanda Rodríguez Díaz and 13-year-old Fermín Rodríguez Díaz were murdered by a counter-revolutionary gang operating in Matanzas’ southern region at the La Candelaria farm in Bolondrón. The previous year, 22-year-old Andrés Rojas Acosta was killed by a mercenary gang in San Nicolás de Bari, hanged with the same rope he had used to tie his pig. In October 1960, 22-month-old Reynaldo Núñez-Bueno Machado and his mother were gunned down by Gerardo Fundora’s gang during a roadside attack on a passing civilian jeep between Madruga and Ceiba Mocha. By March 1963, 10-year-old Albinio Sánchez Rodríguez was shot dead by Delio Almeida’s gang as retaliation for a defeat the group suffered at the hands of Cuban National Revolutionary Militia forces.

These child killings are not isolated tragedies, but part of a broader pattern of violence that targeted even young Cubans working to advance the revolution’s social goals. The murders of volunteer literacy teacher Conrado Benítez García, young literacy worker Manuel Ascunce Domenech, and fellow educators and peasant organizers who worked to eradicate illiteracy across the island remain a defining reminder of how U.S.-backed terror targeted everyday Cubans working to build a better future. Even the 1961 Playa Girón mercenary invasion, a large-scale covert aggression, left a generation of families shattered: 13-year-old Nemesia Rodríguez Montalvo watched her mother die and her young siblings wounded from U.S.-supplied shrapnel, while 176 people were killed and more than 300 wounded across the island in the fighting.

By the time counter-revolutionary gang activity was fully suppressed in 1965, the death toll from U.S.-sponsored terror had already reached 725 people, including civilians, active-duty troops, and militiamen, with hundreds more left permanently disabled and traumatized. Beyond the killings of civilians, the U.S. campaign included widespread economic sabotage and attacks on critical infrastructure designed to destabilize the new government. In February 1960, a U.S.-tied small plane set fire to 1.5 million arrobas of sugarcane across four major mills in Camagüey, striking at the heart of Cuba’s core export economy. The 1960 sabotage of the French freighter *La Coubre* in Havana’s port remains one of the most brutal early acts of state-sponsored terror: the ship carried a legal shipment of arms purchased by Cuba from Belgian industry, and the blast killed 101 people and left hundreds injured.

Other high-profile attacks targeting civilian infrastructure followed throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In April 1961, the country’s largest department store, El Encanto, was burned to the ground by a CIA-linked terrorist, killing salesclerk Fe del Valle Ramos and injuring 18 other workers. A month earlier, an attack on the Hermanos Díaz refinery in Santiago de Cuba killed 27-year-old on-duty sailor René Rodríguez Hernández and left 19-year-old Roberto Ramón Castro permanently disabled. In May 1961, terrorists set fire to a crowded cinema in Pinar del Río during a children’s matinee, injuring 26 children and 14 adults. By 1963, an air strike on Santa Clara killed teacher Fabric Aguilar Noriega and wounded three of his four children. A 1971 machine gun attack on the coastal town of Boca de Samá, carried out by terrorist vessels launched directly from U.S. territory, killed two civilians and wounded multiple residents. Two years later, terrorists attacked two Cuban fishing vessels in the Florida Straits, murdering fisherman Roberto Torna Mirabal and stranding his crew on rafts without food or water.

The deadliest and most infamous of these attacks came in October 1976, when a Cuban civilian airliner was blown up in mid-flight, killing all 73 people on board—including 24 members of Cuba’s youth fencing team, who had just swept all gold medals at the Central American regional championships. Beyond attacks on civilians and infrastructure, terrorist operatives backed by the U.S. also carried out hundreds of assassination attempts against revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz, totaling more than 600 plots that were all foiled by Cuban security agencies. The campaign of aggression also extended to biological warfare: in 1981, the deliberate introduction of hemorrhagic dengue fever by U.S. operatives killed 158 people, including 101 children, and required the hospitalization of more than 116,000 Cubans.

Six decades after the first anti-revolutionary terror attacks began, the Cuban people formally marked their collective claim for justice in two landmark legal actions: a 1999 lawsuit seeking compensation for human harm caused by U.S.-sponsored terror, followed by a 2000 filing for economic damages stemming from decades of aggression. Even after 67 years, the pain of these losses remains raw for the families of the victims, who have watched as successive U.S. administrations have maintained a hostile policy that has made Cuba the longest-running primary target of American state-sponsored aggression in modern history. Today, the lawsuits stand as a permanent historical record of the heavy price Cuba has paid to defend its sovereignty and right to exist as an independent nation.