Ramiro Valdes, key figure of Cuban revolution and Castro ally, dead at 94
The architect of Cuba’s state security apparatus and former vice-president was one of the final veterans of the 1956 rebel uprising
Ramiro Valdes, one of Fidel Castro’s earliest collaborators who was lauded at home as a hero of the Cuban revolution, has died at the age of 94, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on social media on Sunday.
The president did not provide a cause of death.
A top government official for decades after Castro’s rebels came to power in 1959, Valdes held the honorary titles “Hero of the Republic” and “Commander of the Revolution” and formed part of the powerful Political Bureau of the ruling Cuban Communist Party until 2019.
In a post on social media, Diaz-Canel said Valdes’ death “hurts deeply, like that of a father”.
“Until victory, always, Commander!” the Cuban president added.
Born on April 28, 1932, Valdes was just 21 when he fought alongside Fidel Castro at the assault on the Moncada barracks that launched the 1953 uprising against the government of Fulgencio Batista.
