Summary

NAME: PROF R CASTRO 20060801Ix TAPE: EF06/0690 IN_TIME: 11:11:14:19 DURATION: 00:03:05:23 SOURCES: AP/Cubavision DATELINE: Various, File RESTRICTIONS: Part No Access Cuba SHOTLIST CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE - Cuba - 1990's 1. Raul Castro with children, during visit to countryside CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE - China - 1997 2. Raul Castro during visit to China AP Television FILE - Cuba - 2000 3. Zoom out to wide shot of Raul Castro walking along the Malecon CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE - 2001 4. Various of Raul with Vice President of the Council of State Almeira and President Fidel Castro AP Television FILE - Cuba - December 2000 5. Fidel and Raul Castro greeting President Putin of Russia AP Television FILE - Cuba - 2001 6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's brother and named successor: "I am from Galicia. I have the right to ask for Spanish nationality. Did you know that? But I am not going to do it because the Cuban constitution forbids dual nationality." 7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Fidel Castro, President of Cuba: "The important thing is that Raul is fit. He has climbed the Pico Turquino (Cuba's highest altitude) and in very quick time. At the age of 70, he climbed the Pico Turquino so he is in good health, and is five (years) younger than me. Really, after me he is the man with the most experience and knowledge. Perhaps not everybody knows that. He is the man." 8. Various of Raul and Fidel Castro at National Assembly CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE - Cuba 9. Raul Castro with baby 10. Black and white still of Raul with his family (THE FOLLOWING SHOTS ARE BLACK AND WHITE) CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE - Cuba - 1959 11. Raul Castro, wearing hat, with Vilma Espin Guillois, his wife and President of the Federation of Cuban Women CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE - Cuba - August 1960 12. Various of Fidel Castro addressing crowds. Raul Castro and Dr Oswaldo Dorticos tell Fidel to stand aside as his voice was worsening. Raul Castro takes over and continues the speech CUBAVISION - NO ACCESS CUBA FILE- Cuba - Early 1960's 13. Photo still of Raul Castro with his wife Vilma Espina Guillois STORYLINE: The extent of Fidel Castro's illness was still unknown on Tuesday after he temporarily ceded power to his 75 year-old brother, Raul. Defence Minister Raul Castro has assumed a more public profile in recent weeks, but did not appear on television and made no statement of his own following the announcement that Fidel had been operated on to repair a "sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding". The statement was read live on state television on Monday night by Fidel Castro's secretary, Carlos Valenciaga. Fidel Castro did not appear on the broadcast, fuelling speculation on just how ill the Cuban leader is. The news stunned Cubans on the island and in exile, and marked the first time that the Cuban leader, two weeks away from 80th birthday, had relinquished power in 47 years of absolute rule. Holding several No. 2 posts in Cuba's power structure Raul Castro for decades has been the constitutional successor. He has been a vociferous defender of communist ideology in recent years and in 1996 announced a crackdown on academics who strayed too far from the party line, criticising those who had grown too close to US colleagues. But he has also shown signs of flexibility. As head of the armed forces, Raul Castro oversaw some of Cuba's most important experiments with limited market-style economic reforms. Military units produced and sold food at free markets and the military ran an important company, Gaviota, catering to luxury tourism. He also expressed interest in China's version of free-enterprise socialism during a visit there in November 1997. The fourth of seven children, Raul Castro Ruz was born in eastern Cuba on June 3, 1931. Like his older brother Fidel, he attended the Jesuit Cologio Dolores in Santiago and later a Jesuit preparatory school in Havana. In the first year of the Cuban Revolution, Raul married Vilma Espin, who had fought alongside him. She eventually became, and remains, head of the Communist Party-linked women's organisation and often serves as a sort of First Lady for Cuba. Raul Castro was named head of Cuba's armed forces late in 1959 and in 1960 cut off the pony tail he had grown as a guerrilla fighter to signify his conviction that the revolution was secure. In 1962 he became deputy prime minister and in 1972 first deputy prime minister, behind Fidel. As head of Cuba's armed forces, Raul was deeply involved in Cuba's military involvement in Angola and Ethiopia during the 1970s - as well as with the military's peacetime efforts to help rescue Cuba's economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.