The Spy Network Valdés Built Still Controls Cuba, Six Decades Later

Ramiro Valdés, who created Cuba's G2 intelligence service, died June 21 at 94. The surveillance apparatus he built in the 1960s—neighborhood informants, workplace monitors, internal security—outlasted him by decades. Despite Cuba's shifts in leadership, the G2 remains active under Miguel Díaz-Canel. Valdés's institutional design proved more durable than his political influence.