Ministerio del Interior

Commanding the northwest side of the Plaza de la Revolución [1] is the seven-story Ministerio del Interior (Ministry of the Interior, the ministry in charge of national security), built in 1953 to be the Office of the Comptroller. On its east side is a windowless horizontal block that today bears a soaring “mural” of Che Guevara—the image is from Alberto “Korda” Gutiérrez’s world-renowned photo—and the words Hasta la Victoria Siempre (“Always Toward Victory”), erected in 1995 from steel railings donated by the French government. No visitors are allowed.