The Castro family is still important to the Cuban leadership. Here are the words you need to know.

Months after the US military ousted the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in power boldly but comparatively military operations in briefPresident Trump has publicly stated that the same thing may happen soon in Cuba.

He said “Cuba will follow” and was considered “taking over Cuba one way or another.”

For decades, US administrations have tried and failed to bring about major changes to Cuba’s communist system, imposing sanctions but doing little as its economy crumbled.

As living conditions in Cuba worsen under the Trump administration’s oil embargo following Maduro’s ouster, US officials it’s been meeting with important figures in Cuba to press for economic and political reforms.

Mr. Trump has shown that he wants something big in Cuba, which may have a change at the top, similar to Maduro’s performance. He recently he said he wants to “bring about the day that has been waiting for 70 years – it is called the new dawn of Cuba.”

What that might mean for Cuban leaders remains to be seen. Here are some statistics to look at.

Raúl Castro

Raúl Castro, the younger brother of rebel leader Fidel Castro, stepped down as the president of Cuba in 2018 again as a leader of his Communist Party in 2021, but is still widely seen as one of the most powerful people in the country.

The 94-year-old suspect has it now he was charged in the USand five others, about 1996 downed two planes run by the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. He is facing charges including murder and conspiracy.

Raúl Castro served as a commander in the guerrilla war, led by his brother, that overthrew US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He later became the head of the Cuban army, and Fidel Castro led Cuba for nearly 50 years. In 2008, Fidel handed over the presidency to Raúl, who in 2011 succeeded his brother as leader of the Communist Party of Cuba. Fidel Castro is dead in 2016.

Raúl Castro is considered to be more logical than his brother, he reached an agreement with former President Barack Obama in 2014 that created the widest opening of the US to Cuba since the early 1960s – it led to an increase in contact with the US, although this was largely reversed during the Trump administration.

Miguel Díaz-Canel

Miguel Díaz-Canel has served as president of Cuba since 2018 and is the leader of its Communist Party. His term runs until 2028.

He is the first non-Castro to lead the country since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and was hand-picked by his predecessor, Raúl Castro, to the job.

Reports indicate that the Trump administration does not believe that the changes they want will be possible under their current president.

Díaz-Canel said the purpose of the talks between Cuba and the US is to identify differences, possible solutions and ways Cuba and the US can move forward. Responding to the threats of Mr. Trump’s takeover of the military, Díaz-Canel said that Cuba will win it.

But Díaz-Canel is considered by experts to be a professional, an honest person who has no real authority.

“He is not one of the central power brokers in Cuba. He is the president, but he is not the real power on the island,” said Christopher Hernandez-Roy, senior fellow and deputy director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If he were to step down or be removed, that’s an easy deal for the real Cuban consumers,”

Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Castro’s nephew

Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga does not have the Castro name, but he is the nephew of Fidel and Raúl Castro and is already in government.

Pérez-Oliva Fraga, 55 and an electrical engineer by training, was appointed deputy prime minister last October and serves as Cuba’s trade and investment minister.

Reports from the past months indicate that he has been elected to the National Assembly, which makes it legal for him to ascend to the presidency.

As part of his trade and investment commitments, Pérez-Oliva Fraga was behind the announcement in March that Cubans are in the diaspora or exiled invest and own businesses in Cuba, which has been mostly state-owned enterprises for the past few decades.

This idea represents a fundamental change: Cubans who left the island were stigmatized under Fidel Castro’s regime as “amagosano” – worms. So “that’s a very important opening” and shows a willingness to take the economy “in a slightly different direction,” Hernandez-Roy said.

But he also said that this move would contradict the Helms-Burton Act, which states that the US embargo against Cuba can be lifted only if there is a transitional government that does not include Fidel or Raúl Castro and if the new government is closer to a free market economic system and free elections.

Pérez-Oliva Fraga’s position as trade minister also gives him oversight of GAESA, Cuba’s military-controlled forum for tourism, finance and foreign businesses.

The US State Department, which announced new sanctions against GAESA on May 7, believes that GAESA controls 40% or more of Cuba’s economy and says it generates revenue “for the benefit of [Cuba’s] corrupt people.” The department estimates that GAESA’s revenue is “almost three times more than the federal budget,” and may control “illegal assets of up to $20 billion.”

“Raulito,” the grandson of Raúl Castro

Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “Raulito,” is Raúl Castro’s 41-year-old grandson. Also nicknamed “El Cangrejo” (“The Crab”) because he was born with a thumb on one hand, he works as Raúl Castro’s bodyguard and advisor.

He has no official role in the government. But Hernandez-Roy says Rodríguez Castro is an important figure “as a gatekeeper to his grandfather, who, despite being 94 years old, remains central to decision-making in Cuba.”

He has been identified as the main point of contact with the US, meeting with Trump administration officials in the past few months, including lectures in mid-April.

Axios reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among the officials who have met with the younger Castro, who may be part of a possible deal with the US.

Is there a “Delcy” in Cuba?

The Trump administration’s performance in Venezuela could provide a template for Cuba. Shortly after overthrowing Maduro, who was ousted by the US military within hours, the US recognized his vice president, Delcy Rodriguezas interim president — someone the Trump administration believes is possible work with.

Hernandez-Roy suggests that one “possible Delcy” from Cuba would be Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga.

However, Ryan Berg, former director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Americas Program, pointed out on the CSIS ‘State of Play’ podcast in March that one reason it will be difficult for the US to replicate Venezuela’s playbook in Cuba is that “right now, it doesn’t seem like there’s an analogue to the Venezuelan situation — meaning there’s some kind of collusion with the Cuban leader that Rodríz can identify with.”

However, the US may be looking at options, and most likely members of the Castro family, although it is not clear what role they will play in the new or revised government.

“Rubio keeps saying the people in power have to change,” American University professor William LeoGrande, an expert on Latin American politics and US foreign policy, told CBS News. But he expected opposition.

“The Cuban people are willing to discuss many things that affect the economy, but they have already drawn a red line to allow the United States to decide what kind of political process or who their political leaders are,” LeoGrande said. “For them, that’s a matter of their national sovereignty. So I think at this point, that’s probably going to be the real sticking point in reaching some kind of agreement.”