First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba is the top leader of Cuba. The First Secretary is the highest office within the Communist Party of Cuba as well as ranking first in the Politburo, the highest decision-making body in Cuba, which makes the office holder the most powerful person in the Cuban government. In communist states 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 (head of state) or Prime Minister (head of government), when those positions are held by different individuals.

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
Primer Secretario del Partido Comunista de Cuba
Logo of the Communist Party of Cuba
Incumbent Miguel Díaz-Canel since 19 April 2021
Central Committee
Style	Comrade (formal)
Type	Party leader, Supreme leader
Member of	Central Committee, Politburo, Secretariat
Seat	Palace of the Revolution Havana, Cuba
Appointer	Central Committee
Term length	Five years, renewable once
Constituting instrument	Statute of the Communist Party of Cuba
Formation	18 August 1925 (1925-08-18)
First holder	José Miguel Pérez
Deputy	Second Secretary

The officeholder of the post of first secretary presides over the work of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (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, the Party's highest executive organ, and chairing the sessions of the Politburo, the Party's highest political organ. The current first secretary is Miguel Díaz-Canel, elected by the 1st Session of the 8th Central Committee on 19 April 2021, and he concurrently serves as president of Cuba.

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

Institutional history of the highest-standing office of the Communist Party of Cuba

Title	Established	Abolished	Established by	Ref.
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Spanish: Secretario General del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba	18 August 1925	13 August 1939	1st Congress
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Union Spanish: Secretario General del Comité Central de la Unión Comunista Revolucionaria	13 August 1939	22 January 1944	Central Committee of the 3rd Congress
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Popular Socialist Party Spanish: Secretario General del Comité Central del Partido Socialista Popular	22 January 1944	24 June 1961	4th Congress
First Secretary of the National Directorate of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations Spanish: Primer Secretario de la Dirección Nacional de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas	26 July 1961	26 March 1962	?
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the United Party for the Socialist Revolution of Cuba Spanish: Primer Secretario del Comité Central del Partido Unido para la Revolución Socialista de Cuba	26 March 1962	3 October 1965	?
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Spanish: Primer Secretario del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba	3 October 1965	Present	1st Congress

Officeholders

First secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba

No.	Officeholder		Took office	Left office	Tenure	Term	Birth	PM	Death	Ref.
1		José Miguel Pérez	18 August 1925	31 August 1925	13 days	1st (1925–34)	1896	1925	1936
2		José Peña Vilaboa	September 1925	13 March 1927	193 days years	1st (1925–34)	1891	1925	1927
3		Joaquín Valdés	April 1927	?	? years	1st (1925–34)	?	1925	?
4		Jorge Vivó	29 March 1930	22 April 1934	4 years, 24 days	1st (1925–34)	1906	1927	1979
5		Blas Roca	22 April 1934	24 June 1961	27 years, 2 days	2nd–? (1934–1961)	1908	1930	1987
6		Fidel Castro	26 July 1961	19 April 2011	49 years, 267 days	PROV–5th (1961–2011)	1926	1955	2016
7		Raúl Castro	19 April 2011	19 April 2021	10 years, 0 days	6th–8th (2011–21)	1931	1953	Alive
8		Miguel Díaz-Canel	19 April 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 218 days	8th–present (2021–present)	1960	1985	Alive

See also

• List of political parties in Cuba
• Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba
• Secretariat of the Communist Party of Cuba
• President of Cuba
• Prime Minister of Cuba
• Cuba under Fidel Castro

References

Books

• Blaquier, Angelina Rojas (2005). El primer Partido Comunista de Cuba [The First Communist Party of Cuba]. Vol. 1. Editorial Oriente. ISBN 9789591104656.
• Kapcia, Antoni (2022). Historical Dictionary of Cuba. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781442264540.
• Portillo, Eloida Diana Kindelán (2017). "Política de alianzas del primer Partido Comunista de Cuba en la década de 1940" [Alliance policy of the first Communist Party of Cuba in the 1940s]. In Massón, Caridad (ed.). Laz Izquierdas Latinoamericanas: Multiplicidad y Experiencias durante el Siglo XX [The Latin American Left: Multiplicity and Experiences during the 20th Century]. Ariadna Ediciones. pp. 131–149. ISBN 979-10-365-0361-0.

Journal articles

• Goldenberg, Boris (1969). "The Rise and Fall of a Party: The Cuban CP (1925–59)". Problems of Communism. 19 (4): 61–80.
• Jeifets, Víctor; Jeifets, Lazar (2014). "La odisea roja. Varias líneas al retrato político de Jorge Vivó d'Escoto" [The Red Odyssey. Several Lines to the Political Portrait of Jorge Vivó d'Escoto]. Revista CS. 14: 155–188. doi:10.18046/recs.i14.1844. ISSN 2011-0324.

Web articles

• "Cuban communist party keeps old guard in power". The Guardian. 19 April 2011. Archived from the original on 17 January 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
• "Un Partido por las masas y para las masas (II)" [A Party by the masses and for the masses (II)]. Granma (in Spanish). 7 April 2016. Archived from the original on 11 September 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
• Meneses, Yaima Puig; Hernández, Leticia Martínez (19 April 2021). "Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez elected as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee". Granma. Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
• Molina, Julio Martínez (8 April 2021). "El mejor heredero de la fuerza heroica de la unidad cubana (+Video)" [The Best Heir to the Heroic Force of Cuban Unity (+Video)]. Granma (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
• López-Trigo, Pedro Ríoseco (18 August 2021). "¿Cómo fue la fundación del primer Partido Comunista de Cuba?" [How was the founding of the first Communist Party of Cuba?]. Granma (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.