Raul Castro is absent as Cuba celebrates anniversary of key revolutionary attack

Cuba held a traditional rally on Sunday to commemorate one of the revolution’s most important anniversaries but former president Raul Castro was conspicuously absent.

It was the first time in at least 30 years that 95-year-old Castro had not attended the event, and no explanation was given. President Miguel Diaz-Canel read a congratulatory message from Castro to his compatriots at the rally, held in the eastern city of Pinar del Río.

The annual event commemorates the July 26, 1953 assault led by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks in Cuba’s eastern region. The military action against former dictator Fulgencio Batista failed but it marked the beginning of the revolutionary struggle that culminated on January 1, 1959.

Raul Castro’s last public appearances were in June, during an event to establish the Ministry of the Interior, and on May 1 to celebrate Labour Day.

While he no longer holds any formal positions, Raul Castro’s symbolic presence is strong and he was recently identified as one of the negotiators in talks with the United States following the imposition of a US energy embargo.

Facing a crowd of hundreds of people waving Cuban flags early on Sunday, Diaz-Canel rejected a report that the US State Department published last week that accused Cuba of running a leftist espionage and influence network against the United States and Latin America for decades.

“Every day they issue a threat against the revolution, and every week they announce a new punishment for Cuban companies and officials,” the president said.