Raul Castro’s wife, 77 year old Vilma Espín, passed away yesterday after a long battle with an undisclosed illness (sickness seems to be a state secret in Cuba). She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and played a key role in the Cuban revolution, heading the urban-based Frank País Eastern Front and ferrying messages to Fidel Castro while he was exiled in Mexico. Espín and Raúl Castro wed shortly after the revolution’s 1959 triumph. Some rumors have them separating some 20 years ago. In fact, some reports claim that he remarried. They have four children together. In 1986, Espín became the first woman member of the Cuban Communist Party’s ruling Political Bureau. A founder of the Cuban Federation of Women, she was also a member of the legislative National Assembly.

Via / The Miami Herald

Image Via / Bohemia.Cu