Popular Socialist Party (Cuba) in the context of Carlos Baliño

The Communist Party of Cuba (Spanish: Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26th of July Movement and Popular Socialist Party that seized power in Cuba after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The party governs Cuba as an authoritarian one-party state where dissidence and political opposition are prohibited and repressed. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the party to be the "leading force of society and of the state."

The highest body within the PCC is the Party Congress, which convenes every five years. When the Congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest body. Because the Central Committee meets twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities are vested in the Politburo. Since April 2021, the First Secretary of the Central Committee has been Miguel Díaz-Canel, who has been serving as President of Cuba since 2018.

The United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba (Spanish: Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba, PURSC) was the sole legal political party of Cuba created on March 26, 1962. The precursor to the Communist Party of Cuba, the party was a reorganization of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI), which itself was the culmination of consolidation efforts of Cuba's various revolutionary forces – 26th of July Movement, the Popular Socialist Party, and the Revolutionary Directorate 13th of March – following the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The party then finally evolved into the PCC in October 1965 under the leadership of Fidel Castro.