Santiago Carillo (born 1915) was the General Secretary and Chairman of the Communist Party of Spain from 1970 until the fall of Communism in 1985-86, making him the head of Spain in that period. He succeeded Julio del Vayo after the former's 1970 assassination by Islamist militias. As head of Spain for nearly sixteen years, Carillo was largely responsible for the decline of the Spanish communist state and was imprisoned for life in 1987 following the transition to democracy. He was released at the age of 90 in 2005 and currently lives in exile in Mexico.