Cuba: A wall painting of Fidel Castro (1926 - 2016), Cuban revolutionary and political leader, Baracoa, Guantanamo Province. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 - 25 November 2016) was a Cuban political leader and former communist revolutionary. As the primary leader of the Cuban Revolution, he served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of Council of Ministers of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961.