Ramiro Valdés, one of Cuba's last revolutionary commanders, dies at 94
Ramiro Valdés , one of the last surviving commanders of Cuba’s 1959 revolution, has died at 94, President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced on June 21. Valdés took part in the 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks alongside Fidel Castro, fought with Che Guevara during the guerrilla war, served twice as interior minister and once as vice president, and helped establish the G2 state security service that was modeled on the Soviet KGB.
“Every act in Commander Ramiro’s life was marked by his absolute fidelity to the leadership of #Fidel and #Raúl, to his fellow fighters,” Díaz-Canel wrote on X.
His death removes one of the last direct links to the revolution’s founding generation, and it comes as Cuba’s Communist Party has approved the most far-reaching market-oriented reforms since 1959. The juxtaposition underscores a generational and ideological transition: the leaders who built the centrally planned state are passing as their successors move to open the economy.