Vilma Espin de Castro, a daughter of privilege who became one of the most powerful women in communist Cuba - as the de facto first lady for her brother-in-law, Fidel Castro, and as a champion of women's rights - has died in Havana aged 77.
Her husband, defence minister Raul Castro, is acting president of the country. His wife's commitment to the revolution was underscored by her attitude to human rights campaigners who drew attention to abuses in Cuba: they were denounced as "worms" and "racist American lackeys".
The cause of death was not disclosed by Cuban state television, but it is believed she suffered from "severe circulatory problems".
In 1986, Espin became the first woman elected to full membership of the Cuban Communist Party's politburo, the country's highest policymaking body. Although this elite designation came late in her career, her long-standing authority stemmed from her work in the 1950s as an underground leader fighting with the Castros against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
One of the most feared and ambitious of revolutionary fighters, she was also regarded as a gifted organiser and diplomat. She was an ideal roving ambassador for her country after Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and was reported to have smoothed relations with her country's Soviet sponsors during the cold war.
For more than four decades, Espin filled the role of Cuban first lady because Fidel Castro was divorced and remained guarded about letting the public know too much about his female companions.
Starting in 1960, Espin spent almost all of her political career as head of the Federation of Cuban Women. She was credited with improving the status of women in a society known for its history of machismo. She gave prominent voice to improvements in maternal and child healthcare policies as well as the need for women to educate themselves. She lobbied successfully for passage of the Cuban family code of 1975, which codified the duties of men to participate in household responsibilities, such as child-raising.
"From the feminist perspective, she empowered women in the home to say to a husband, 'It's my national, patriotic duty to work, to volunteer in the community'," said Ileana Fuentes of the Miami-based Cuban Feminist Network.
However, some scholars found that Espin's federation had accomplished far less than Cuban propaganda revealed. In her 1997 review of the book, Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba,Ann Ferguson wrote in the National Women's Studies Association Journal: "The free higher-education system allowed an unprecedented number of women in a Third World country to become professional and technical workers, but the highest posts . . . were reserved to men."
Vilma Espin Guillois was born on April 7th, 1930, to an upper-middle-class family in the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba. Her mother was French and the daughter of a diplomat. Her father, a Cuban, was an executive at the Bacardi rum distillery.
After graduating second in her class at Santiago's Universidad de Oriente, she took graduate courses in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). However, by 1956, she had dropped out of MIT after meeting Frank Pais, an early leader against the 1952 coup that returned Batista to power. Within a year, Espin was a deputy to Pais in Santiago and took over in 1957 after he was killed by police during a street protest. Using the nom de guerre Deborah, she became a key underground leader, co-ordinating with Fidel Castro and his followers in the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
Her underground work was considered by some to be more dangerous than guerrilla warfare because she risked greater exposure as she arranged for medicine, money and weapons to be sent into the hills. She was also reportedly ruthless when ordering the killing of suspected informers.
By mid-1958, Santiago had become too unsafe for her. She fled into the mountains with a rebel army faction led by Fidel's younger brother, Raul. They married in early 1959, soon after Batista fled.
After Fidel Castro assumed power, Espin became among the most powerful women in the country, with loyalists Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria Cuadrado.
In appearance, she dressed with little adornment. She kept her hair in a bun and could seem matronly. However, she brooked little dissent and became visibly irate when questioned about the government's human rights abuses.
Her clout on the island nation increased with Raul Castro's assumption of presidential duties in July last year.
Espin and Raul Castro had four children.
Vilma Espin de Castro: born April 7th, 1930; died June 18th, 2007