By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA, March 12 (Reuters) - 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.
The Cuban government has denied that any official talks are underway, 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.
Cuba's top diplomat to the United States said his country is "ready to engage with the U.S." on bilateral relations so long as Cuba's sovereignty and right to self-determination are respected, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.
"We are sure that it is possible to find a solution," Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera told the news outlet.
If talks are taking place, they come at a time when the United States has tightened its economic sanctions on Cuba by imposing a near-total oil blockade, and after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, removing a crucial Cuban ally from power.
IS RAUL CASTRO CALLING THE SHOTS?
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 became ill 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.
WHO IS RAUL GUILLERMO RODRIGUEZ CASTRO?
Known as "El Cangrejo," or "The Crab," because of his hand, Rodriguez Castro, 41, is widely seen as one of his grandfather's closest confidants. As former bodyguard to Raul Castro, he was at his grandfather's side, sometimes dressed in the military uniform of the Interior Ministry, throughout Raul Castro's presidency. He has been reported to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The Cuban government did not respond to a query about Rodriguez Castro's biography or possible role in negotiations.
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 Raul Castro's inner circle, U.S. Representative Mario Díaz-Balart told the Miami Herald.
Rodriguez Castro is the son of Raul's daughter Deborah Castro Espin and the late General Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja, who was head of the military business conglomerate GAESA. During Raul Castro's presidency, GAESA assumed control of the state's most important businesses including hotels, banking, logistics and retail. Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja died of a heart attack in 2022 at age 62. Media reports suggest Rodriguez Castro may have taken a role in his late father's company.
That lineage places Rodriguez Castro at the intersection of Cuba's political leadership and its most powerful economic institution, making him a potentially significant go-between for Washington.
Rodriguez Castro has never spoken publicly nor given interviews.
WHAT OF ALEJANDRO CASTRO ESPIN?
If "El Cangrejo" is acting as a back-channel connection between Havana and Washington, he would be playing a similar role to that of his uncle and Raul Castro's son, Alejandro Castro Espin, who conducted then-secret negotiations marking a major shift by the United States toward Cuba during Barack Obama's presidency.
Family ties appear to matter. Neither of the younger Castros held a diplomatic job. Raul Castro in turn had been a confidant and adviser to older brother Fidel.
Alejandro Castro Espin, 60, is believed to have been sidelined after his father left office, though the Interior Ministry colonel may have ascended to one-star general.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Havana; Editing by Christian Plumb, Lisa Shumaker and Will Dunham)
