Miguel Diaz-Canel, an Experienced Political Leader

Lawmaker Miguel Diaz-Canel is from today on the President of Cuba's Council of State, a responsibility he's taking on after a long political career.

Graduated in electronic engineering and with a master degree in Management, the new Cuban president born on April 20, 1960, has grown as a top official since his inception as a student leader to the position of first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) in the central province of Villa Clara.

Diaz-Canel Bermudez also worked as second secretary in the National Directorate of the UJC, an organization that is a direct reserve of the governing Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), which according to the Constitution, is the highest leading force in society and the State.

In the Party, he accumulates a vast experience, and in 1993 he was promoted to member of the Provincial Bureau, performing as its first secretary in Villa Clara and then in the eastern province of Holguin.

Since 2003 he has been a member of the Political Bureau of the PCC.

The Cuban Head of State and Government was appointed in 2009 Higher Education Minister, three years later Vice President of the Council of Ministers and in February 2013 he was elected First Vice President of the country.

Diaz-Canel Bermudez served his social service in the Revolutionary Armed Forces as an anti-aircraft missile troops officer, post in which he received the Army Distinguished Service recognition.

He also attended the National Defense Academy and was an internationalist aid worker in Nicaragua.