MIAMI,  (Reuters) – Fidel Castro is still influencing  the government of President Raul Castro in Cuba and holding  back any moves toward a democratic opening on the island, the  exiled younger sister of both men said yesterday.

Juanita Castro, 76, who has been a firm critic of her  brothers’ communist rule in Cuba during 45 years of exile, this  week revealed she collaborated with the CIA for three years  before leaving her Caribbean homeland for good in 1964.

The revelation, made in her memoir “Fidel and Raul, My  Brothers, the Secret History” published on Monday, added a  previously unknown twist to the saga of the Castro family which  has been closely entwined with Cuba’s history since Fidel  Castro’s 1959 revolution grabbed the attention of the world.

Afflicted by age and ill-health, Fidel Castro, 83, handed  over the formal presidency of Cuba last year to his younger  brother Raul Castro, 78, a former defense minister widely seen  as less charismatic but more pragmatic than the older Castro.

Juanita Castro, who has not spoken to either of her  brothers since leaving Cuba in 1964, said she believed Fidel  Castro was still influencing Cuba’s leadership by keeping the  the one-party communist system he established firmly in place.  He still holds the powerful post of first secretary of the  Cuban Communist Party’s central committee.

“There are two people currently governing Cuba, (Raul) is  not the only one ruling, Fidel is also ruling from his sickbed,  from his retirement, he’s also calling the shots, as it were,”  she told Reuters in an interview in Miami where she lives.

She sees the influence of Fidel, with whom she split  politically after he turned toward communism, as an obstacle to  possible reforms moving Cuba away from one-party socialism at a  time when U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking to improve  ties between Washington and Havana.

“I think Fidel is blocking things a bit,” she said.
“It could be Fidel has the dominant voice, that’s the  impression I have,” Juanita Castro said. Slight, bespectacled  and petite, her voice strengthens when she accuses her brother  Fidel Castro of hijacking the national democratic credentials  of the 1959 revolution to then impose Marxism on the island.

“He betrayed the Cuban revolution which was democratic and  as Cuban as palm trees, as he himself used to say,” she said.
When Castro’s serious illness in 2006 led to Raul Castro  initially picking up the reins of government, there was  speculation his more pragmatic style could lead to liberalizing  reforms in Cuba’s centralized economy and political system.

But although Raul has introduced some reforms to try to cut  state spending and boost productivity, he has made clear he has  no intention of abandoning communism and embracing capitalism.

The Cuban leadership is demanding that Obama completely end  the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the island.
Cuba’s government, which routinely dismisses critics as  mercenaries in the pay of Washington, has not yet reacted to  Juanita Castro’s revelation that she worked for the CIA in Cuba  between 1961 and 1964 by helping opponents of Castro’s  government, including CIA agents, to escape detection and  capture. She said she also helped many to leave the island.