Miguel Díaz-Canel

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba

Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez 20 April 1960 Placetas, Cuba

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Incumbent

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and 17th president of Cuba In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Díaz-Canel and the second or maternal family name is Bermúdez. Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (Spanish:  ; born 20 April 1960) is a Cuban politician serving as the president of Cuba since 2019 and as the first secretary of the Communist Party since 2021. He was previously President of the Council of State of Cuba from 2018 to 2019 and First Vice President from 2013 to 2018. He has been a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party since 2003, and he served as Minister of Higher Education from 2009 to 2012; he was promoted to the post of Vice President of the Council of Ministers (Deputy Prime Minister) in 2012. A year later, on 24 February 2013, he was elected as First Vice President of the Council of State. He was selected to succeed Raúl Castro as the candidate for President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers on 18 April 2018 and was sworn into office the following day after the National Assembly voted for his nomination. His two predecessors in the role were brothers by blood; notably, Díaz-Canel's succession (following Raúl Castro) represents a non-dynastic form of succession for the Communist Party as well as for the Republic of Cuba. Díaz-Canel is the first president to not be a Castro family member since Osvaldo Dorticós in 1976 and the first leader of the government who is not a Castro since José Miró Cardona in 1959. He succeeded Raúl Castro, brother of Fidel Castro, as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba on 19 April 2021, marking the end of the Castro era in Cuba.