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The Cuban regime announced on Monday the program of posthumous events in honor of Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 94 and was a pillar of repression in the country, with simultaneous ceremonies scheduled for this Tuesday in Havana and in each provincial capital across the country.
According to the official statement published in the state newspaper Granma, the tribute in the capital will begin at 10:00 AM at the headquarters of the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, where the remains of the commander will be displayed.
At the same time, all the provincial capitals and the Special Municipality of Isla de la Juventud will hold their own tribute ceremonies.
The regime also declared , signed by Miguel Díaz-Canel, which establishes the Cuban flag at half-mast on public buildings and military institutions throughout this Tuesday, from 6:00 a.m. until midnight.
The text of the decree, published in the Official Gazette, describes Valdés as a "hero of the Republic of Cuba and of Labor" and assigns its enforcement to the ministers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Interior, and Foreign Affairs.
The remains of the commander will be transferred to Santa Clara for their final burial on Thursday, June 25, with military honors, at the Mausoleum of the Front of Las Villas, within the Ernesto Che Guevara Sculptural Complex.
The official statement indicates that the choice of location is in accordance with "his final wish to rest alongside his fellow fighters and near the Heroic Guerrilla," referring to Che Guevara, under whose command Valdés fought as the second-in-command of the invading column No. 8 "Ciro Redondo" during the battle of Santa Clara in 1958.
Valdés was the first head of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), founded in 1961, and the architect of the Cuban state security apparatus: he created the State Security Department and the General Intelligence Directorate, structures that have upheld the political repression of the regime for over six decades.
His figure generates opposing evaluations. For the regime, he is a revolutionary hero; for opponents, exiles, and Cuban-American lawmakers, he was responsible for decades of repression and crimes against the Cuban people, earning him the nicknames "Blood Sea" and "the Butcher of Artemisa."
The Cuban-American representative María Elvira Salazar reacted harshly to his death: "Another one who dies and cannot pay on this earth for all the harm he caused."
For his part, representative Carlos A. Giménez expressed regret that Valdés passed away "without ever having to face justice for the countless crimes against humanity, tortures, and atrocities he committed against the Cuban people."
Valdés had been away from public life for months. His last verifiable appearance was in September 2025 at the inauguration of a solar park in Sancti Spíritus, and he was even absent from the event marking the 65th anniversary of MININT held on June 6, 2026, where Díaz-Canel paid tribute to him in his absence.
With his death, Raúl Castro, at 95 years old, remains the only living survivor of the founding core of Castroism with active political influence.
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