The Castro family envoy, Raúl G. Rodríguez Castro, who has been in talks with the Trump administration, was once named in a case targeting a Cuban smuggling ring.
Raúl Castro, with his grandson and bodyguard Raúl G. Rodríguez Castro, during an official ceremony in Paris in 2016.Credit…Francois Mori/Associated Press
The man kept so close to Mr. Castro while they walked the red carpet at the Élysée Palace that a member of the French honor guard tried pulling him back.
Even François Hollande, France’s president at the time, waved him back.
The security escort who kept inserting himself in official photos was none other than Mr. Castro’s grandson, Raúl G. Rodríguez Castro, a colonel in the interior ministry.
Today, the once largely unknown bodyguard has become a key figure in Cuba’s talks with the United States, even though he has never held public office. His name has even come up as someone the Trump administration might find acceptable to become Cuba’s next leader.
“He exemplifies how that government operates,” said Tim Rieser, a foreign policy aide to former Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, who met Mr. Rodríguez Castro several times. “It’s a lot like a family business, and so someone who was described to us a decade ago as President Castro’s bodyguard has for whatever reason, by whatever means, become something much more than that.”
