Cuba has lost its first lady

Cuba has declared mourning following the death on Monday of 77-year-old Vilma Espin ( pictured ), one of the country's most powerful women, after a long illness. She was the wife of 76-year-old Raul Castro, brother of Fidel Castro. Due to Fidel's illness, Raul has been acting president since last summer.

Vilma Espin Guillois was born on April 7, 1930 in Santiago de Cuba into a wealthy family. Her father owned the Cuban branch of the Bacardi company, which produced the famous rum. After graduating from the University of Havana by specialty A chemical engineer, she joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement. Her parents sent Vilma Espin to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, but the girl returned to her homeland to participate in the preparation of the uprising against dictator Batista in 1956. After the failure of the uprising, she went to the Sierra Maestra mountains with the partisans, where she met Raul Castro and married him in April 1959.

After the victory of the revolution, Vilma Espin became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and a member of the State Council; for more than 35 years she headed the Federation of Cuban Women and was vice-president of the International Democratic Federation of Women. Since 1955, after Fidel Castro's divorce from Mirta Castro, with the approval of the Comandante himself, Vilma Espin played the role of First Lady of Cuba. Raul Castro and Vilma Espin have three daughters and a son.

Victor VOLODIN