Fidel Castro

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Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (b. 13 August 1926, in Oriente, Cuba) is a Marxist leader and cigar fan. He was Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 until his official resignation in February 2008, being Cuba's undisputed leader for almost 50 years.

Due to illness his duties are now being carried out by his brother Raúl Castro, who is notable for having been known by nobody until that point. The latter announced in 2013 he would not seek reelection to the posts of president and commander in chief, which means we might be going somewhere in a few years.[1]

Contents

[edit] Life

Fidel Castro
Raúl Castro

Castro's father was a sugar plantation owner from Spanish Galicia named Ángel Castro, and his mother was Lina Ruz (his father's maid). The young Fidel progressed through Catholic schools to study law at Havana University in 1945. There, his involvement in student politics included a 1947 attempt to overthrow the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, and, in 1948, membership of the newly-formed nationalist Ortodoxo Party. That same year he married Mirta Díaz-Balart, and had a son in 1949, Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, currently head of Cuba's atomic energy bureau.

Castro divorced from Díaz-Balart in 1954. In 1956, he had an illegitimate daughter named Alina Fernández, with Natalia Revuelta, who fled to the United States in 1993 and became an outspoken critic of his regime.

After graduating in 1950, Castro entered law practice specializing in poor people's cases. In 1953 he was involved in a first unsuccessful attempt to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista. Imprisoned, then exiled to Mexico, Castro returned to Cuba in 1956 to organize the revolution.

[edit] Revolution and dictatorship

Fulgencio Batista seized power in a March 10, 1952 military coup d'état from Auténtico party president Carlos Prío and then set new records for political corruption and incompetence on the island. Fidel Castro's first bid to overthrow Batista took place on July 26, 1953, when he led 160 other revolutionaries in seizing the Moncada barracks in Santiago. The object was to spark a rebellion among Cuban youth against the dictatorship. The attack failed and Castro and 27 comrades were eventually captured, tried and imprisoned.[2] In October 1954, Fidel's influential "History Will Absolve Me" was published clandestinely and circulated throughout Cuba. On May 15, 1955, Fidel and the others were released under an amnesty. Fidel, Raul and several more then went into exile in Mexico on July 7, 1955, where they joined by future guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

The revolutionaries, now organized as the "July 26 Revolutionary Movement," sailed on the Granma from Mexico to Cuba on December 2, 1956. After a lengthy guerrilla campaign, Batista was toppled on January 1st, 1959. Castro set up a communist regime with himself as maximum leader, transformed Cuba into a one party communist state.

The CIA tried and failed to assassinate him multiple times,[3] and in 1962 the U.S. imposed an economic embargo on Cuba. Later, Castro was excommunicated by Pope John XXIII, but he didn't care. With full support from the now-defunct Soviet Union, Castro had started deep transformations in the island, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Public education (if more or less as conceived by Orwell in 1984), sports and particularly public health, were much developed. However, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuba's economy plunged, with massive power, gas and water outages. Naturally, neither Castro nor his acolytes have to suffer such banalities.

[edit] Death

Fidel's death has been eagerly anticipated, and even encouraged (as noted above) for over half a century; he outlived Margaret Thatcher, for crying out loud. When it happens it will probably be the biggest party seen in South Beach ever. Andy even celebrates it since 2006.[4]

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. As Castro Era Drifts to Close, a New Face Steps In at No. 2, The New York Times
  2. Mario Mencia. 1993. The Fertile Prison. Melbourne: Ocean Press. ISBN 978-1875284087
  3. In total, up to 638 attempts were made on his life by the CIA.
  4. http://conservapedia.com/Mystery:Did_a_Fake_Fidel_Castro_Meet_the_Pope%3F
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