HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, a former vice president and a key figure of the Cuban Revolution who fought alongside Fidel Castro, died Sunday, the Communist Party and Cuba’s government said. He was 94.

Valdés was one of the closest allies of Fidel and his brother Raúl Castro since the 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks that marked the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. He remained an influential figure in the following decades.