Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of Cuban general Raul Castro, has visited Panama multiple times using private jets. A recent investigation documents these trips and reveals ties to influential regional figures. This occurs amid stark contrasts between Cuba's elite luxuries and widespread poverty on the island.
Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, known as “El Cangrejo”, aged 41 and holding the rank of colonel, previously served as head of security for his grandfather. An investigation by La Prensa, Armando.Info, Transparencia Venezuela en el Exilio, and the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) documents at least 13 trips to Panama in 2024 and ten more in 2025 through September, sometimes aligning with key political dates.
On May 1, 2024, four days before Panama's presidential elections won by Jose Raul Mulino, Rodriguez Castro arrived on a Venezuelan-registered aircraft YV654T, piloted by three Venezuelans. There is no immigration record, only the flight manifest. He was accompanied by Brigadier General Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, a Cuban parliament deputy and Central Committee member of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). She succeeded Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja, Rodriguez Castro's father, at Gaesa after his 2022 death. Gaesa oversees Cuba's most profitable economic sectors, with companies registered in Panama handling banks, hotels, and remittances.
La Prensa reports Lastres Morera linked to various Panamanian firms owning real estate in the capital. In 2025, most of Rodriguez Castro's flights used a Dassault Falcon 900EX jet registered in San Marino. Another involved a Venezuelan Learjet 55 YV3440, which crashed on September 24, 2025, in Maiquetia, Venezuela; survivor Ramon Carretero Napolitano is a Panamanian businessman tied to Cuban and Venezuelan regimes via Corporacion Logistica del Caribe, S.A. His former employee, Edwin Pitty, now serves as Panama's ambassador to Cuba.
Between September 20 and 22, 2025, Rodriguez Castro and a companion made substantial purchases in Chiriqui province. Intelligence sources note this is not their first shopping trip there, with unconfirmed reports of property ownership in Coche. These trips underscore connections between Cuba's elite and Panamanian business networks, even as millions of Cubans grapple with shortages of food, medicine, and basic services.