FIDEL CASTRO
G'day folks,
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and
politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to
1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) established the first
communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the
military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for
nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in
2008. During that time, Castro’s regime was successful in reducing illiteracy,
stamping out racism and improving public health care, but was widely criticized
for stifling economic and political freedoms. Castro’s Cuba also had a highly
antagonistic relationship with the United States–most notably resulting in the
Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two nations officially
normalized relations in July 2015, ending a trade embargo that had been in
place since 1960, when U.S.-owned businesses in Cuba were nationalized without
compensation. Castro died on November 25, 2016, at 90.
Fidel Castro: Early Years
Castro
was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, a small town in eastern Cuba. His father
was a wealthy Spanish sugarcane farmer who first came to the island during the
Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898); his mother was a domestic servant for
his father’s family who bore him out of wedlock. After attending a couple of
Jesuit schools–including the Colegio de Belén, where he excelled at
baseball–Castro enrolled as a law student at the University of Havana. While
there, he became interested in politics, joining the anti-corruption Orthodox
Party and participating in an aborted coup attempt against the brutal Dominican
Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo.
In 1950, Castro
graduated from the University of Havana and opened a law office. Two years
later, he ran for election to the Cuban House of Representatives. The election
never happened, however, because Batista seized power that March. Castro
responded by planning a popular uprising. “From that moment on, I had a clear
idea of the struggle ahead,” he said in a 2006 “spoken autobiography.”
Castro’s Revolution Begins
In July
1953, Castro led about 120 men in an attack on the Moncada army barracks in
Santiago de Cuba. The assault failed, Castro was captured and sentenced to 15
years in prison, and many of his men were killed. The U.S.-backed Batista,
looking to improve his authoritarian image, subsequently released Castro in
1955 as part of a general amnesty. Castro ended up in Mexico, where
he met fellow revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara and plotted his return.
The
following year, Castro and 81 other men sailed on the yacht “Granma” to the
eastern coast of Cuba, where government forces immediately ambushed them. The
estimated 18 survivors, including Castro, his brother Raúl and Guevara, fled
deep into the Sierra Maestra Mountains in southeastern Cuba with virtually no
weapons or supplies.
According to Castro,
the revolutionaries started reorganizing with only two rifles, but by early
1957 they were already attracting recruits and winning small battles against
Rural Guard patrols. “We’d take out the men in front, attack the center, and
then ambush the rear when it started retreating, in the terrain we’d chosen,”
Castro said in his spoken autobiography. In 1958, Batista tried to snuff out
the uprising with a massive offensive, complete with air force bombers and
naval offshore units. The guerrillas held their ground, launched a
counterattack and wrested control from Batista on January 1, 1959. Castro
arrived in Havana a week later and soon took over as prime minister. At the
same time, revolutionary tribunals began trying and executing members of the
old regime for alleged war crimes.
Castro’s Rule
In 1960,
Castro nationalized all U.S.-owned businesses, including oil refineries,
factories and casinos. This prompted the United States to end diplomatic
relations and impose a trade embargo that still stands today. Meanwhile, in
April 1961, about 1,400 Cuban exiles trained and funded by the CIA landed near
the Bay of Pigs with the intent of overthrowing Castro. Their plans ended in
disaster, however, partially because a first wave of bombers missed their
targets and a second air strike was called off. Ultimately, more than 100
exiles were killed and nearly everyone else was captured. In December 1962,
Castro freed them in exchange for medical supplies and baby food worth about
$52 million.
Castro publicly
declared himself a Marxist-Leninist in late 1961. By that time, Cuba was
becoming increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for economic and military
support. In October 1962, the United States discovered that nuclear missiles
had been stationed there, just 90 miles from Florida, setting off fears of a World War III.
After a 13-day standoff, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the nukes
against the wishes of Castro, who was left out of the negotiations. In return,
U.S. President John F. Kennedy publicly consented not to
reinvade Cuba and privately consented to take American nuclear weapons out of
Turkey.
Cuban Life under Castro
After
taking power, Castro abolished legal discrimination, brought electricity to the
countryside, provided for full employment and advanced the causes of education
and health care, in part by building new schools and medical facilities. But he
also closed down opposition newspapers, jailed thousands of political opponents
and made no move toward elections. Moreover, he limited the amount of land a
person could own, abolished private business and presided over housing and
consumer goods shortages. With political and economic options so limited,
hundreds of thousands of Cubans, including vast numbers of professionals and
technicians, left Cuba, often for the United States.
In 2015, U.S. and Cuban officials announced they had agreed to terms on the normalization of relations between the two nations, with mutual embassies and diplomatic missions opening in each country.
Castro died on
November 25, 2016, at the age of 90. His death was announced on state
television and later confirmed by his brother Raúl.
Clancy's comment: I've read that he survived more than 600 assassination attempts; most by the CIA.
I'm ....
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