Mexico City, Mexico — Ramiro Valdez Menéndez, the last living commander of the Cuban Revolution and designer of the Cuban surveillance apparatus, died on June 21 at the age of 94.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel broke the news about X without providing any details. State media confirmed his death.
The Cuban president said he felt as if he had lost his father and praised Valdez’s “absolute loyalty” to “Fidel and Raul” and the revolution.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega also paid tribute praising Valdez’s dedication to the revolution.
Reaction on Cuban social media was divided. Some people mourned his death, while others expressed relief or publicly celebrated his death.
At the age of 21, Valdes joined the Moncada Offensive and fought alongside Fidel Castro. He later became a member of the 1956 Granma Expedition, which launched a guerrilla campaign against Batista in the Sierra Maestra and fought under Che Guevara in the Battle of Santa Clara.
All these qualifications made him one of Castro’s most trusted figures.
After 1959, he served twice as Minister of the Interior, established a state security agency called G2 modeled on the Soviet KGB, and served as vice-chairman of the State Council and Council of Ministers and member of the Communist Party’s Politburo.
There are few figures in Cuban politics as politically durable as Valdez. Until 2009, he held the position of Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers and was considered the third most powerful person in the Communist government.
His career was cut short. In 1986, a dispute with Castro cost him his post as interior minister and his place in his inner circle. He returned to the State Council in 2003 and later served as Minister of Information Technology and Communications.
That was not his only clash with Castro’s leadership, but he was able to bounce back from each difficult situation.
Through G2 and MININT, Valdés oversaw the surveillance, arbitrary detention, and torture practices that defined the regime’s repressive apparatus for decades.
He was also a strong opponent of the U.S. intelligence community, which had tried for decades to topple the regime without success.
He was known by several nicknames among Cubans. A pool of blood (pool of blood) or the Butcher of Artemis (Butcher Shop in Artemis).
Many of the human rights abuses he was involved in are documented in the book “I Gave Everything for Cuba,” written by Cuban activist Mignon Medrano.
In his final months, Valdés largely withdrew from public life. He was last seen in October 2025 at an event commemorating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party.
His death leaves Raul Castro as one of the few remaining members of the founding generation of the Cuban Revolution.
Featured Image: Cuba’s longtime intelligence chief Ramiro Valdez Menéndez died June 21 at age 94.
Image source: Radio 26
