He was a science adviser to Cuba’s Council of State and vice president of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. He graduated from the Institute of Science and Nuclear Technology in the former Soviet Union and also held a doctorate in physical-mathematical sciences from the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. Mr. Castro Díaz-Balart said when he had studied in the Soviet Union he used an assumed name and that few people knew who he was. He earned international and national recognition.
Fidel Castro and his son
Mr. Castro Díaz-Balart played a prominent role in efforts to develop nuclear energy in the country. He was the executive secretary of Cuba’s Atomic Energy Commission from 1980 to 1992 and was in charge of a project to build a nuclear power plant at Juraguá, a project which was abandoned by 2000. His family was not involved into politics. He was married to María Victoria Barreiro and had three children from his previous marriage: Fidel Antonio Castro Smirnov, Mirta María Castro Smirnova and Jos¬é Raúl Castro Smirnov.
