U.S. President Donald Trump has said repeatedly the United States is in talks with high-level Cuban representatives, and that Cuba is eager to reach a deal to defuse tensions between the two neighbors that have deepened the island’s economic crisis.
Pressure Mounts On Cuba
The Cuban government has denied any official talks are under way, but has yet to explicitly deny press reports that U.S. officials were in talks with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of former Cuban President Raul Castro, who is 94 and still wields great influence.
If talks are taking place, they come at a time when Washington has tightened its economic sanctions on Cuba by imposing a near-total oil blockade, and after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, removing a crucial Cuban
ally from power.
Influence Of Raúl Castro
Raul Castro fought alongside his older brother Fidel in the revolution that toppled a U.S. ally in 1959 and served as his brother’s loyal defense minister for decades. He ascended to the presidency, first on an interim basis when Fidel got sick in 2006, then took over definitively when Fidel retired in 2008.
With Fidel’s death in 2016, Raul assumed the mantle as the single unifying leader among those loyal to the Cuban revolution. He still wields influence even after stepping down as president in 2018 and as leader of the Communist Party in 2021, since then carrying the honorific title army general.
At his 2018 swearing-in ceremony, current President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Raul Castro “will lead the most important decisions for the present and future of the nation.”
That was on public display as recently as December 2025. As Cuba’s Communist Party prepared to choose Diaz-Canel’s successor at an all-important party congress this year, Raul Castro proposed postponing the congress indefinitely, given Cuba’s economic crisis. The party’s Central Committee approved the proposal unanimously.
Focus On Castro’s Grandson
Attention has focused on Rodriguez Castro, 41, grandson of Raul Castro and his former bodyguard. He has been reported to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel and has seen long service in the Interior Ministry.
Axios, citing three unnamed sources, reported on February 18 that Rodriguez Castro was in secret talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The Miami Herald, citing unnamed sources, reported on February 26 that officials close to Rubio met with
Rodriguez Castro on the sidelines of a regional Caribbean Community conference in St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Trump administration has been having secret, high-level conversations with several people in Raúl Castro’s inner circle, similar to the discussions held in Venezuela before the U.S. captured Maduro in a military raid earlier this year, U.S. Representative Mario Díaz-Balart told the Miami Herald.
(with inputs from Reuters)
