The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba is the top leader of

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. The First Secretary is the highest office within the

Communist Party of Cuba The Communist Party of Cuba (, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26th of July Movement and Popu ...

as well as ranking first in the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

, the highest decision-making body in

, which makes the office holder the most powerful person in the

Cuban government Cuba is communist and has had a socialist political system since 1961 based on the "one state, one party" principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as a single-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republic with semi-presidential powers. The pre ...

. In

communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

s the First or General Secretary of the Communist Party is typically the '' de facto'' leader of the country and a more powerful position than state offices such as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

(head of state) or

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

(head of government), when those positions are held by different individuals. The officeholder of the post of first secretary presides over the work of the Central Committee of the

(PCC), which is designated as " the organised vanguard of the Cuban nation" and as " the superior driving force of society and the State" by Article 5 of Cuba's constitution. The PCC Central Committee, the Party's highest political-executive organ between convocations of the party congress, has the right to elect and dismiss the first secretary at one of its sessions. The first secretary is responsible for leading the work of the

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who was the ninth winn ...

, the Party's highest executive organ, and chairing the sessions of the

, the Party's highest political organ. The current first secretary is

Miguel Díaz-Canel Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (; born 20 April 1960) is a Cuban politician and engineer. He has served as the 8th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba since 2021 and as the 17th president o ...

, elected by the 1st Session of the 8th Central Committee on 19 April 2021, and he concurrently serves as

president of Cuba The president of Cuba (), officially the president of the Republic of Cuba (), is the head of state of Cuba. The office in its current form was established under the Constitution of 2019. The President is the second-highest office in Cuba and ...

. The first forerunner organisation to the present-day PCC was formed on 18 August 1925, and it elected the Spain-born José Miguel Pérez as its leader. Due to repressive actions by the Cuban state of

Gerardo Machado Gerardo Machado y Morales (28 September 1869 – 29 March 1939) was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933. Machado was elected president in 1924 as the leader of the Liberal Party, a moderate reform ...

, Pérez was kicked out of the country thirteen days later, on 31 August. This brought the newly-established party into turmoil, and José Peña Vilaboa took over Pérez's position and kept the position until his death on 13 March 1927. Due to his health struggles, Miguel Valdés García served as acting general secretary for most of Peña Vilaboa's tenure. Valdés García continued to do so until April 1927, when Joaquín Valdés Hernández was elected general secretary. State repression and bad organisation brought party work to a standstill until the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

(Comintern) appointed Jorge Abilio Vivó d’Escoto as party general secretary in 1930. In August 1933, a general strike took place in Havana that called for Machado's removal. Vivó is said to have misjudged the revolutionary situation, and he was forced to step down on the Comintern's orders at the 2nd Congress, held on 20–22 April 1934. Blas Roca Calderio was elected in Vivó's place and stayed in office until 24 June 1961 when the party merged with the

26th of July Movement The 26 July Movement (; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, part of an at ...

and the Revolutionary Directorate of 13 March Movement to form the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (IRO), which elected

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

as its first secretary. The IRO was transformed into the United Party for the Socialist Revolution of Cuba (PURSC) on 26 March 1962. Three years later, on 3 October 1965, the PURSC convened the 1st Congress of the newly-established Communist Party of Cuba. The 1st Central Committee, which had been elected by the 1st Congress, convened for its 1st Session on 3 October 1965 and elected Fidel as first secretary. He remained in office for 49 years until the convocation of the 1st Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee on 19 April 2011, which elected his brother

Raúl Castro Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz ( ; ; born 3 June 1931) is a Cuban retired politician and general who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the One-par ...

to succeed him in office. Raúl remained in office for two electoral terms and was succeeded by Miguel Díaz-Canel on 19 April 2021.

Institutional history

Officeholders

References

Books

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Web articles

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Footnotes

{{Communist Party of Cuba Communist Party of Cuba Government of Cuba Leaders of political parties in Cuba