Raúl Castro, 95, Appears on Cuban TV at Veterans’ Ceremony

Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba and aged 95, appeared on Cuban state television less than a month after participating publicly in a Havana ceremony commemorating the centenary of his late brother Fidel Castro’s birth.

Television appearance at interior ministry unit anniversary

The revolutionary leader featured in an extended report broadcast multiple times over the weekend by the official Cuban television network. The segment covered a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of a unit under the Ministry of the Interior responsible for personal security of Cuban leaders—including Fidel Castro, who governed the country from 1959 to 2006.

In the televised footage, Raúl Castro appeared alert and wore his traditional military uniform as he awarded honors to veterans of that unit. Accompanying him was his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who also serves as head of his personal security detail, according to Agence France-Presse.

Continued political influence despite formal retirement

Although Raúl Castro no longer holds any official position in the Cuban government or the ruling Communist Party of Cuba, he remains influential in political decision-making and retains the loyalty of the armed forces.

In June, the Cuban presidency announced that he had approved economic reforms aimed at addressing the island’s unprecedented crisis, which is exacerbated by intense pressure from the United States.

Those reforms represented the most significant shift in Cuba’s economic model since the country adopted the communist system approximately 70 years ago.

U.S. court indictment from last May

A U.S. court charged Raúl Castro in May of last year with causing the deaths of four Americans after two small aircraft operated by a Cuban-exile group were shot down in 1996. At the time of the incident, he held the post of Minister of the Armed Forces.