Ramiro Valdes, one of Fidel Castro's earliest collaborators and a hero of the Cuban Revolution, died at the age of 95, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced tonight, as reported by the British agency Reuters on its website.
"To victory, always, comandante!" the head of state wrote on social media, repeating the slogan of the 1959 revolution.
Ramiro Valdes held high government positions and served on the Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party, which was in power until 2019.
Born on April 28, 1932, he was only 21 when he fought alongside Fidel Castro during the attack on the Moncada Barracks, which marked the beginning of the 1953 uprising against the government of Fulgencio Batista.
Exiled with Fidel Castro to Mexico, he was one of 82 men who sailed on the yacht Granma to Cuba in 1956 to restart the uprising—and one of only 12 who survived that action.
Among them were Fidel Castro, who died in 2016, his younger brother Raul, who later became president and head of the Communist Party, and Ernesto Che Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary killed in Bolivia in 1967 while trying to start an uprising there.
Ramiro Valdes joined the Castro brothers in the Sierra Maestra mountains in eastern Cuba, where he served as Che Guevara's deputy, especially during the decisive Battle of Santa Clara, which hastened the fall of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.
He founded the new security services of the communist island before serving as Minister of the Interior, Deputy Minister of Defense, Minister of Information, and Vice President.
Always wearing his distinctive uniform and goatee, he was recently tasked with overseeing the energy crisis on the island and regularly appeared alongside President Diaz-Canel to encourage Cubans to turn off lights, reduce consumption, and "maintain their revolutionary spirit."
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