Communist Party of Cuba

The Communist Party of Cuba is the ruling political party in Cuba. It is a Marxist-Leninist communist party. The Cuban constitution describes the role of the party to be the "leading force of society and of the state". Since April 2021, the First Secretary of the Central Committee has been Miguel Diaz-Canel. The Second Secretary has been Jose Ramon Machado Ventura.
History
Cuba had a number of communist and anarchist organizations from the early period of the Republic. The original "internationalised" Communist Party of Cuba formed in the 1920s. In 1944, it was renamed as the Popular Socialist Party for electoral reasons. In July 1961, two years after the successful overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the creation of a revolutionary government, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed. It was a merger of:
Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement
The Popular Socialist Party led by Blas Roca
The student-based Revolutionary Directory led by Faure Chomon
On 26 March 1962, the ORI became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC), which became the Communist Party of Cuba on 3 October 1965. In Article 5 of the Cuban constitution of 1976, the Communist Party is recognized as "the superior guiding force of society and of the State, that organizes and orients common efforts toward the high goals of the construction of socialism and the advancement toward communist society". All parties, including the Communist Party, are prohibited from advertizing their organizations.
For the first fifteen years of its existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of the Politburo. The 100 person Central Committee rarely met and the first regular party Congress was held ten years after its founding. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 (0.7% of the population), making the PCC the smallest ruling communist party in the world. By the time of the first party Congress in 1975, the party had grown to just over two hundred thousand members. By 1980, the party had grown to over 430,000 members and it grew further to 520,000 by 1985.
Central Committee
The leading bodies of the party were the Politburo and the Secretariat until 1991. In 1991 the two bodies were merged into an expanded Politburo with over twenty members. However, the Secretariat was re-introduced in 2002. There is also a Central Committee which meets between party congresses. At the Fifth Congress, the size of the Central Committee was reduced to 150 members from the previous membership of 225. Fidel Castro was the party's First Secretary (or leader) since its creation while Raul Castro was the Second Secretary. Upon Fidel Castro's 2008 resignation from the party and Cuban government, Raul Castro became First Secretary.
Politburo
The 8th Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was elected by the Central Committee following the 8mth Congress.
Youth
The Communist Party of Cuba has a youth wing, the Young Communist League (Union de Jovenes Comunistas, UJC) which is a member organization of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. It also has a children's group, the Jose Marti Pioneer Organization.
Ideology
Compared with other ruling Communist Parties, the Communist Party of Cuba retains a stricter adherence to the tradition of Marxism-Leninism and the traditional Soviet model.