Cuban revolutionary Vilma Espin, wife of acting president Raul Castro, dead at age 77

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Cuban revolutionary Vilma Espin, wife of acting president
Raul Castro, dead at age 77

Published: June 18, 2007

HAVANA: Vilma Espin Guillois, the wife of acting President Raul Castro
and one of the communist nation's most politically powerful women,
died Monday, the Cuban government announced. She was 77.

Espin died Monday afternoon after "the long illness she was afflicted
with" worsened in recent weeks, according to Cuban state television.
Authorities did not disclose the illness, but she was said to suffer
from severe circulatory problems in recent years.

Her death was likely to have a profound emotional impact on both
Raul and Fidel Castro at a critical moment in Cuban history. Not only
was she a wife and a sister-in-law, but a fellow guerrilla fighter who
was with the Castro brothers at the start of their revolutionary
battle a half-century ago.

Cuba's top leaders will pay homage to Espin with a solemn gathering
Tuesday night at the Karl Marx theater in Havana, along with leaders
of the Federation of Cuban Women and other representatives of Cuban
society.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/19/news/CB-GEN-Obit-Espin.php

---

Source: Reuters

Vilma Espin, first lady of Cuban revolution, dies

By Todd Benson
Reuters
Monday, June 18, 2007; 9:49 PM

HAVANA (Reuters) - Vilma Espin, sister-in-law of convalescing
Cuban leader Fidel Castro and one of the most powerful women in
Cuba's political leadership, died on Monday in Havana. She was 77.

State-run Cuban television said Espin died from complications from
a long-standing illness, but did not give further details.

A key figure in advancing equality for women in Communist Cuba,
Espin was married to Castro's younger brother Raul, who took over
as acting president in July 2006 after the elder Castro underwent
emergency intestinal surgery and was sidelined from power.

Espin, who was rumored to be ill for more than a year, was Cuba's
unofficial first lady because Fidel Castro has always kept his
private life out of the public limelight and his wife Dalia Soto del
Valle has never played any official role.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801606.html

[burrowowl]

1. RIP Vilma!

[emilyg]

2. RIP

[Judi Lynn]

3. Found photos of her with her husband when she was a young woman.

She stands to the left of Raul, next to Che Guevara and his wife, Aleída, June, 1959.





Much more recent photo, Vilma Espin, sitting in the cream colored pants and top, next to Ricardo Alarcon, in the white shirt, President of the Cuban National Assembly.