Ramon Castro, the Older Brother of Fidel and Raul dies in Cuba
HAVANA TIMES — Ramon Castro, the older brother of Fidel and Raul Castro, died Tuesday at the age of 91 years, reported dpa news.
Ramon Castro died on Tuesday morning, said the official newspaper “Granma” in its online edition, without specifying the cause of death. After being cremated, his remains were to be transferred to Biran, the birthplace of the Castro’s in eastern Cuba.
Ramon was two years older than former President Fidel Castro, and was seven years older than the current president, Raul. Unlike his two famous brothers, the first of several children in the Castro Ruz family not devote himself to politics and lived apart from the public spotlight.
In Cuba he was known especially in his role as a farmer. The older brother resembled Fidel physically, among other things by his bushy beard. On the island he was known colloquially as “Mongo”.
Like his two brothers, Ramon Castro was born into an old landowning family in the village of Biran, in today’s eastern province of Holguin. His parents were the Spanish immigrant Angel Castro and Lina Ruz. The family properties were also expropriated after the triumph of the 1959 revolution.
State media stressed that Ramon Castro was imprisoned in 1953 during the regime of Fulgencio Batista and collaborated with the hiding of members of the July 26 Movement, the guerrilla group led by Fidel Castro that came to power in 1959.
Ramon Castro worked organizing supply networks for the guerrilla fronts in the east of the island, recalls Granma.
The elder Castro worked in the farm sector following the rise to power of his brother Fidel and later served as an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture and the now defunct Ministry of Sugar, among other positions.
R.I.P. Ramon, you are not to blame for your brothers criminal acts against the Cuban people.
Perhaps it was the Soviets that converted the Castro brothers to communism… that seems a much more likely scenario. And off course that only happened after Eisenhower first turned his back on Fidel, and Ike’s administration also then boycotted further imports of Cuban sugar too. Fidel only embraced communism because the U.S. government pushed him away… and into the Soviet camp.
I met Ramon a couple of times when I served in the US Interests Section in Havana. Cuban officials almost never came to our receptions, but Ramon was a frequent visitor. The last time I saw him in 1998 or 1999 he told a small group of us “That it was his crazy brother Raul that converted Fidel to communism.” I do not know if it was true, but it is a story for historians.
No one gets out of here alive, Mo
Kinda’ makes you think that maybe in two years Fidel may finally get the justice he deserves as well. Just sayin’….