Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, one of the last surviving commanders of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, died on June 21 at the age of 94, the government in Havana announced. President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a social media post, described the loss as deeply painful “like that of a father” but gave no cause of death. Valdés was among the twelve men who survived the 1956 Granma yacht landing, the founding myth of the revolution. He held the honorary titles “Hero of the Republic” and “Commander of the Revolution” and occupied top state and party posts for over six decades, most recently as deputy prime minister overseeing the island’s energy crisis.

Official Cuban media and Díaz-Canel stressed Valdés’s “absolute loyalty” to Fidel and Raúl Castro. The Russian embassy in Havana offered condolences, noting his “exemplary” dedication to Cuban sovereignty. Opposition groups and exile organisations, however, have long linked Valdés to the creation of the G2 intelligence service—which critics say became central to political surveillance and repression—and the system of labour camps that consolidated one-party rule. Analysts in Washington point to his 2010 extended mission to Venezuela, officially to advise on power grid problems, as a transfer of Cuban security know-how to the Chávez and Maduro governments.

With Valdés gone, only two members of the Granma expedition remain: Raúl Castro, aged 95, and General Guillermo García Frías, 98. The generational shift that Raúl Castro intended to signal by handing the presidency to Díaz-Canel in 2018 is thus advanced, though Valdés’s continued involvement in the energy brief showed how the historic generation retained influence over crisis management. His regular appearances in military uniform urging Cubans to save electricity reflected the chronic power shortages that have fuelled public disaffection.

Valdés’s career encapsulated the trajectory of the revolution: from the 1953 Moncada barracks attack, through guerrilla warfare alongside Che Guevara, to institutionalising internal security after 1959. His death occurs as Cuba grapples with its deepest economic crisis in decades, marked by food and medicine scarcity. Funeral plans have not been disclosed, but state honours are anticipated. For the government, he is a hero of national liberation; for critics, his legacy is that of an unwavering enforcer of an authoritarian system.