Miguel Díaz-Canel Turns 66: A Profile of Cuba's Leader

April 20, 2026

On April 20, 2026, Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba and First Secretary of the Communist Party, celebrates his 66th birthday. Born in 1960 in Placetas, in the province of Villa Clara, Díaz-Canel became the first Cuban leader not bearing the Castro surname to head the country since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.

A trained electronic engineer who graduated from the Central University Marta Abreu of Las Villas in 1982, his career was shaped early by active involvement in the Union of Young Communists and later in the Communist Party of Cuba, where he served as First Secretary in the provinces of Villa Clara and Holguín. He also served as Minister of Higher Education from 2009 to 2012, a role in which he drove reforms across Cuban university education.

In April 2018, Díaz-Canel was elected President of the Councils of State and Ministers, succeeding Raúl Castro. When Cuba's new Constitution came into force, he formally assumed the Presidency of the Republic in October 2019. On April 19, 2021, during the 8th Congress of the Communist Party, he was appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee, cementing his position as Cuba's top leader.

Díaz-Canel has been married since 2009 to Lis Cuesta Peraza and has three children. Throughout his tenure he has received numerous international honors, including the Order of Ho Chi Minh (2018), the Order of the Liberator (2018), and the Collar of the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle (2023).