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 since 2021 and as the 17th president of Cuba since 2019. In his capacity as First Secretary, he is the most powerful person in the Cuban government. Díaz-Canel succeeded the brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, becoming Cuba's first non-Castro leader since 1958 and its first non-Castro head of state since 1976. He has been a member of 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 ...
Council of State
A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...
Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces
The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include Cuban Revolutionary Army, Revolutionary Army, Cuban Revolutionary Navy, Revolutionary Navy, Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force, Revolutionary A ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 24 February 2013 Beginning in April 1985, he taught engineering at his alma mater. In 1987, he completed an international mission in
Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
In 1993, Díaz-Canel started work with the Communist Party of Cuba and a year later was elected First Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Villa Clara Province, the seniormost role in provincial government. He gained a reputation for competence in this post, during which time it is reported that he supported
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...
at a time when many in the province frowned upon
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...
. In 2003, he was elected to the same position in Holguín Province. In the same year, he was co-opted as a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Díaz-Canel was appointed Minister of Higher Education in May 2009, a position that he held until 22 March 2012, when he became Vice President of the
Council of Ministers
Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...
(Deputy Prime Minister). In 2013 he additionally became First Vice President of the
Council of State
A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...
. As First Vice President of the Council of State, Díaz-Canel acted as senior deputy to the President, Raúl Castro.
Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces
The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include Cuban Revolutionary Army, Revolutionary Army, Cuban Revolutionary Navy, Revolutionary Navy, Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force, Revolutionary A ...
. On 18 April 2018, Díaz-Canel was announced as the only candidate to succeed Castro as president. He was formally elected by the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
on 19 April and sworn in on the same day. He is the first president born after the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the first since 1976 not to be a member of the Castro family.
He received a visit from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro just two days after his inauguration. He met with Maduro again in May 2018 in
Caracas
Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
, during his first official foreign visit as head of state. In his first multinational political trip since becoming president, Díaz-Canel traveled in November 2018 to visit many of Cuba's Eurasian allies. Diplomatic meetings were held in Russia, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and Laos. Brief stopovers in the United Kingdom and France also included meetings with British parliamentarians and French leaders. In March 2019, Díaz-Canel and his wife hosted
Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...
and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in Havana as the first British royals to visit the island.
In October 2019, Díaz-Canel became the President of the Republic of Cuba, an office that was recreated that February after a series of constitutional reforms were approved in a constitutional referendum. This office replaced the one he had held since April of the previous year, which was the President of the
Council of State
A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...
, which was previously the head of state of Cuba. The position of President of the Council of State became a less important position and is now carried out by Esteban Lazo Hernández in his authority as the President of the National Assembly of People's Power. Diaz-Canel's reforms among other things, limited the presidency to two consecutive five-year terms and banned discrimination based on
gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...
. His government also reformed the country's Family Code in 2022, after a
referendum
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
was approved, which, among other things, legalised
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
surrogacy
Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman gets pregnant and gives birth on behalf of another person or couple who will become the child's legal parents after birth. People pursue surrogacy for a variety of reasons such as infertility, danger ...
. These policies have been described as the "most progressive" in
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
.
His administration has suppressed dissent, particularly surrounding the 2021 Cuban protests triggered by the worsening of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, suggested combatting the country's
food crisis
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usuall ...
with
pizza
Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...
, guarapo and lemonade, and changed the currency system. During the protests, he said: "The order of combat has been given - into the streets, revolutionaries!"
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
stated that Díaz-Canel is loyal to the Castros' ideologies. During the 2022
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, the Cuban government blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine and backed Russia's right to self-defense against
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
expansion, but did not endorse the invasion, saying the conflict should be resolved diplomatically. Díaz-Canel visited
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
in Moscow in November 2022, and the two leaders criticized Western sanctions against Cuba and Russia. They also opened a monument to Fidel Castro in one of Moscow's districts. On 19 April 2023, Díaz-Canel was re-elected by the National Assembly for a second five-year term as president, along with Salvador Valdés as vice president. Despite the difficult economic conditions facing the country, his re-election was widely expected and received widespread support from the Assembly members, with 97.66% backing Díaz-Canel's proposal and 93.4% supporting Valdés. The president was praised by the Assembly members for his leadership in difficult circumstances and for prioritizing collective work, innovation, and science. In December 2023, Díaz-Canel condemned the genocide of Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
and called Israel a terrorist state. He joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. Dr. António Agostinho Neto Order (2019)
* :
** Collar of the Order of the Liberator (2018)
* :
** Order of Ho Chi Minh (2018)
* :
** Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (2023)
* :
** Grand Collar of the
Order of Prince Henry
The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...
Díaz-Canel has two children from his marriage to his first wife, Marta Villanueva, which ended in divorce. He currently resides with his second wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza.
On 23 March 2021, Díaz-Canel obtained a PhD in technical sciences, defending a thesis titled "Government Management System Based on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development in Cuba."