Raul Castro appears on Cuban TV after weeks away

Former Cuban president Raul Castro has appeared on state television after weeks out of public view.

Castro, 95, was shown in a report broadcast several times over the weekend to mark the 65th anniversary of a unit responsible for the personal security of Cuban leaders, including his older brother Fidel Castro.

In the broadcast, Raul Castro wore his traditional olive-green uniform and appeared alert as he congratulated veterans of the unit. He was accompanied by his grandson Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, who heads his personal security.

Castro, who was Cuba's president from 2006 to 2018, last appeared in public on August 13, when Cuba marked the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth. He no longer holds an official position in the government or the ruling Cuban Communist Party, but remains influential in political decision-making and has the loyalty of the armed forces.

In June, the Cuban presidency announced that Castro had approved market-oriented economic reforms intended to address Cuba's economic crisis. In May, a US court indicted him over the deaths of four Americans when two small planes belonging to an anti-Castro group were shot down in 1996, when he was defence minister.