Miguel Díaz-Canel

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (born 20 April 1960) is a Cuban politician who has been First Vice President of the Council of State of Cuba since 2013. He has been a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba since 2003, and he served as Minister of Higher Education from 2009 to 2012; he was promoted to the post of Vice President of the Council of Ministers in 2012. A year later, on 24 February 2013, he was elected as First Vice President of the Council of State; as such, he is considered likely to eventually succeed Raul Castro as President of Cuba.

Personal life
Born in the province of Villa Clara, Díaz-Canel's father was a brewery worker, his mother a primary teacher. As a child he was a avid chess player and reader. As a young man he sometimes wore his hair long and listened to rock and roll. He was handsome and popular with other young people. He is married with two children from a former marriage. He lives in a modest home in western Havana and plays baseball for recreation. He has a Facebook page but is not active in social media.

Career
He graduated in 1982 as an electronics engineer, at which time he joined the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces until 1985. Beginning in April of that year he taught at the University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas. In 1987 he completed an international mission in Nicaragua as First Secretary of the "La Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC)" of Villa Clara.

In 1993 he started work with the Communist Party of Cuba and a year later was elected First Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Villa Clara Province. In 2003 he was elected to the same position in the province of Holguin. He was also promoted to the Politburo in 2003.

He was appointed Minister of Higher Education in May 2009, a position which he released on March 22, 2012 when he became Vice President of the Council of Ministers.