The luxurious wedding party at the Ambos Mundos Hotel in Havana was as much about celebrating the assumed rise of Carlos Lage to ­second in the Cuban power structure as the lucky couple’s nuptials. But not everything went to plan.

On February 23 2008, the day before a scheduled meeting of the Cuban ­parliament to elevate Raúl Castro to president and, most believed at the time, Mr Lage to the first vice-presidency, the latter’s cousin, Dr Raúl Castellanos Lage, married his live-in partner.