Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Born	Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz 13 8, 1926
Birthplace	Birán, Oriente Province, Cuba
Died	Template:Death date and age Havana, Cuba
Nationality	Cuban
Occupation	Politician, revolutionary, lawyer
Title	President of the Council of State of Cuba (1976–2008); Prime Minister of Cuba (1959–1976); First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (1965–2011)
Known for	Leading the Cuban Revolution; serving as leader of Cuba (1959–2008)
Education	Doctor of Law, University of Havana
Awards	Confucius Peace Prize (2014)

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed Cuba for nearly five decades, first as prime minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as president of the Council of State from 1976 to 2008. A figure who inspired fervent admiration and intense opposition in nearly equal measure, Castro rose from the son of a wealthy landowner in rural eastern Cuba to become one of the most consequential political leaders of the twentieth century. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became the first one-party communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Industry and business were nationalized, and sweeping socialist reforms were implemented in healthcare, education, and agrarian policy. His government's relationship with the Soviet Union placed Cuba at the center of the Cold War, most dramatically during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Abroad, Castro supported revolutionary movements across Latin America, Africa, and beyond, while also pursuing extensive medical internationalism programs. His legacy remains deeply contested: supporters credit him with transforming Cuba's social indicators in health and literacy, while critics point to the suppression of political dissent, state control of the press, and the economic hardships endured by the Cuban people under his rule.

Early Life

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on 13 August 1926 in Birán, a small settlement in what was then Oriente Province in eastern Cuba. His father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, was a Spanish immigrant from Galicia who had accumulated substantial landholdings and become a wealthy sugarcane farmer. His mother, Lina Ruz González, was a household servant of Cuban origin who later became Ángel Castro's second wife. Fidel was one of several children born to the couple; among his siblings was Raúl Castro, who would later become his closest political ally and eventual successor as president of Cuba.

Growing up on his father's estate, the young Castro was surrounded by the stark contrasts of rural Cuban society—his family's relative prosperity existed alongside the poverty of the laborers who worked the sugarcane fields. He was sent to attend Jesuit-run schools in Santiago de Cuba and later in Havana, where he proved to be an able student with particular aptitude in history, agriculture, and athletics. The discipline and intellectual rigor of his Jesuit education shaped his formative years, though Castro would later diverge sharply from the religious conservatism of his schooling.

Castro enrolled at the University of Havana in 1945, where he studied law. It was during his university years that he became deeply engaged in political activism and adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas. The University of Havana in the 1940s was a turbulent environment, with student politics frequently intersecting with national affairs and various political factions competing for influence. Castro became involved in student organizations and demonstrated an early willingness to engage in direct political action. He participated in an abortive expedition against the right-wing government of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic in 1947, and in 1948 he traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, where he was present during the Bogotazo—the massive urban riots that erupted following the assassination of populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. These experiences abroad deepened his conviction that armed struggle could be a legitimate means of political change in Latin America.

Education

Castro received his primary and secondary education at Jesuit institutions, including the Colegio de Belén in Havana, one of Cuba's most prestigious schools. In 1945, he entered the School of Law at the University of Havana, where he completed his studies and obtained the degree of Doctor of Law in 1950. His legal education provided him with oratorical and analytical skills that he would employ throughout his political career—most famously in his own defense during his trial following the Moncada Barracks attack, when he delivered the speech known as "History Will Absolve Me." During his time at the university, Castro was influenced by the writings of José Martí, the Cuban independence hero, as well as by Marxist theory and anti-imperialist thought. He briefly practiced law in Havana after graduation, often representing poor clients, before devoting himself fully to revolutionary politics.

Career

Early Revolutionary Activities and the Moncada Attack

After completing his law degree, Castro became increasingly active in opposition politics. He had been associated with the Partido Ortodoxo (Orthodox Party), a reformist political movement founded by Eduardo Chibás that campaigned against government corruption. When Fulgencio Batista seized power through a military coup on 10 March 1952, abolishing the constitution and canceling scheduled elections, Castro concluded that legal and electoral avenues for political change had been foreclosed.

On 26 July 1953, Castro led a group of approximately 160 rebels in an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-largest military installation. The assault was intended to spark a popular uprising against Batista's dictatorship, but it was a military failure. Many of the attackers were killed or captured, and Castro himself was arrested, tried, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. During his trial, he delivered a lengthy and impassioned courtroom speech in his own defense, concluding with the now-famous declaration, "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me." The speech, later published and widely circulated, served as a political manifesto outlining Castro's vision for Cuba, including land reform, educational expansion, and industrialization.

Castro was imprisoned on the Isle of Pines (later renamed the Isle of Youth), where he spent approximately two years before being released under a general amnesty in May 1955. During his incarceration, he read extensively and continued to organize politically through correspondence.

Exile in Mexico and the 26th of July Movement

Following his release from prison, Castro found it increasingly difficult to operate politically within Cuba under Batista's surveillance and repression. He traveled to Mexico in 1955, where he organized a revolutionary group that he named the Movimiento 26 de Julio (26th of July Movement), commemorating the date of the Moncada attack. In Mexico, Castro recruited fellow exiles and sympathizers, including his brother Raúl Castro. It was also in Mexico that Fidel met the Argentine physician and revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who joined the movement and would become one of its most prominent figures.

The group underwent military training in Mexico in preparation for an armed expedition to Cuba. On 25 November 1956, Castro and eighty-one other revolutionaries departed the Mexican port of Tuxpan aboard the yacht Granma, a vessel designed to carry far fewer passengers. The crossing of the Gulf of Mexico was difficult, and the group arrived on the southeastern coast of Cuba on 2 December 1956, two days behind schedule. Their landing was detected by Batista's forces, and in the ensuing ambush most of the expeditionaries were killed, captured, or scattered. Castro and a small surviving group—including Raúl Castro and Che Guevara—retreated into the Sierra Maestra mountains.

Guerrilla War and the Cuban Revolution

From the Sierra Maestra, Castro led a guerrilla campaign against Batista's government that lasted approximately two years. Despite beginning with only a handful of fighters, the movement gradually gained support from peasants in the mountainous eastern regions of Cuba, as well as from urban underground networks that carried out sabotage and propaganda operations in Cuba's cities. Castro proved effective at both military command and political communication, granting interviews to foreign journalists—most notably Herbert Matthews of The New York Times—that brought international attention to the insurgency and challenged Batista's claims that Castro had been killed.

The guerrilla forces expanded their operations throughout 1957 and 1958, opening new fronts under commanders such as Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. Batista's military, despite its numerical superiority and access to American-supplied equipment, suffered from low morale, corruption, and a growing inability to control the countryside. A major government offensive in the summer of 1958 failed to dislodge the rebels from the Sierra Maestra, and the tide of the war turned decisively in the revolutionaries' favor.

By late 1958, columns led by Guevara and Cienfuegos advanced westward toward Havana. The key city of Santa Clara fell to Guevara's forces in late December 1958. On 1 January 1959, Batista fled Cuba, and Castro's forces took control of the country. Castro arrived triumphantly in Havana on 8 January 1959 after a cross-country march, assuming the role of commander-in-chief and soon after becoming prime minister.

Consolidation of Power and the Cold War

Upon taking power, Castro initially led a broad coalition government, but he quickly moved to consolidate authority. He became prime minister in February 1959 and oversaw a series of sweeping reforms. The Agrarian Reform Law of May 1959 expropriated large landholdings and redistributed land to peasants. Foreign-owned enterprises—including American sugar mills, oil refineries, and utilities—were nationalized. These measures generated fierce opposition from the United States, which had significant economic interests in Cuba.

Relations between Cuba and the United States deteriorated rapidly. The U.S. government, under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, imposed an economic embargo on Cuba and severed diplomatic relations in January 1961. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) organized and trained a force of Cuban exiles for an invasion intended to overthrow Castro's government. On 17 April 1961, approximately 1,400 exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) on Cuba's southern coast. The invasion was a decisive failure; within three days, Castro's forces had killed or captured most of the invaders. The Bay of Pigs fiasco was a significant embarrassment for the United States and bolstered Castro's prestige both domestically and internationally.

In response to the perceived threat from the United States, Castro deepened Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union. In December 1961, he publicly declared himself a Marxist–Leninist. In 1962, the Soviet Union, with Castro's agreement, began secretly installing nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in Cuba. The discovery of the missile installations by American reconnaissance aircraft in October 1962 precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis, a thirteen-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any other point during the Cold War. The crisis was resolved through negotiations between Washington and Moscow—without Castro's direct participation—resulting in the Soviet withdrawal of the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to withdraw American missiles from Turkey.

Domestic Policies

Under Castro's leadership, Cuba's economy was restructured along socialist lines. Private businesses were nationalized, central economic planning was introduced, and the country's economy became heavily dependent on sugar exports to the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc nations. Castro pursued ambitious social programs, particularly in education and healthcare. A nationwide literacy campaign launched in 1961 mobilized hundreds of thousands of volunteers and dramatically reduced illiteracy rates. The government expanded access to free healthcare and education at all levels, and Cuba's indicators in infant mortality, life expectancy, and physician-to-patient ratios eventually compared favorably with those of many developed nations.

These social achievements, however, were accompanied by significant political restrictions. Cuba became a one-party state under the Communist Party, and independent media, opposition parties, and civil society organizations were suppressed. Political dissidents faced imprisonment, and tens of thousands of Cubans—including intellectuals, professionals, and members of the LGBTQ community—were subjected to persecution or forced labor in the early decades of the revolution. Freedom of speech and assembly were curtailed, and the government maintained extensive surveillance and security apparatus. Waves of emigration, most notably the Mariel boatlift of 1980, saw hundreds of thousands of Cubans leave the island, many settling in the United States.

International Involvement

Castro pursued an active foreign policy that extended Cuba's influence well beyond its size. He supported revolutionary and anti-imperialist movements throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Cuban military forces were deployed abroad on several occasions, most significantly in Africa. Cuba sent tens of thousands of troops to Angola beginning in 1975 to support the Marxist MPLA government in the Angolan Civil War, a commitment that lasted until 1991. Cuban forces also intervened in the Ogaden War between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1977–1978, supporting Ethiopia's Marxist government. Castro backed the establishment of Marxist-oriented governments in Nicaragua, Grenada, and Chile (under Salvador Allende), and provided material and advisory support to guerrilla movements in numerous countries.

Castro served as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983, using the position to amplify Cuba's voice in global affairs and to advocate for Third World solidarity against what he characterized as imperialism and neocolonialism. Cuban medical internationalism became a significant dimension of the country's foreign policy, with thousands of Cuban doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers serving in developing countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

The Special Period and Later Years

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 had catastrophic economic consequences for Cuba, which had relied on Soviet subsidies and trade. The period that followed, known as the Período Especial (Special Period), was marked by severe shortages of food, fuel, and basic goods. GDP declined dramatically, and living standards deteriorated sharply. Castro responded by introducing limited market-oriented reforms, including the legalization of some small-scale private enterprise, the opening of the economy to foreign tourism and investment, and the legalization of the U.S. dollar for domestic transactions.

During this period, Castro also embraced environmentalist and anti-globalization rhetoric, positioning Cuba as a model of sustainable development. A 2006 report by the World Wildlife Fund identified Cuba as the only country in the world that met the criteria for sustainable development based on the United Nations Human Development Index and ecological footprint data.

In the 2000s, Castro forged new international alliances, particularly with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, which provided Cuba with subsidized oil in exchange for Cuban medical and educational personnel. This relationship was central to the formation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), an intergovernmental organization established in 2004 to promote social, political, and economic integration among Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Transfer of Power

On 31 July 2006, Castro temporarily transferred his presidential duties to his brother and vice president, Raúl Castro, citing serious health problems related to intestinal surgery. The transfer was initially described as temporary, but Castro never resumed his full duties. On 18 February 2008, Castro formally announced that he would not accept another term as president of the Council of State, effectively ending his tenure as head of state. Raúl Castro was subsequently elected president by the National Assembly. Fidel Castro retained his position as first secretary of the Communist Party until April 2011, when he relinquished that role as well during the party's Sixth Congress, and Raúl Castro succeeded him.

In his final years, Castro remained a public figure through occasional writings—a column known as "Reflections of Fidel"—and meetings with visiting foreign leaders and dignitaries, though he was no longer involved in day-to-day governance.

Personal Life

Castro's personal life was guarded from public scrutiny throughout much of his time in power. He was married twice. His first marriage, to Mirta Díaz-Balart in 1948, produced a son, Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart. The marriage ended in divorce in 1955. Castro later had a long-term relationship with Dalia Soto del Valle, whom he reportedly married in 1980; the couple had five sons together. Castro was known to have had other children from additional relationships, though details were not widely publicized during his lifetime.

Castro was a towering physical presence—he stood well over six feet tall—and was recognizable for his military fatigues, beard, and the cigars he was often seen smoking, though he publicly quit smoking in the mid-1980s as part of a national health campaign. He was known for his extraordinarily lengthy speeches, some lasting several hours.

Fidel Castro died on 25 November 2016 in Havana at the age of 90. His death was announced by his brother Raúl Castro in a televised address to the nation. His ashes were interred in Santiago de Cuba, the city where the revolution had begun with the Moncada Barracks attack more than six decades earlier.

Recognition

Castro received numerous international honors and awards during his lifetime, reflecting his prominence on the global stage, even as he remained a deeply polarizing figure. He was awarded honorary degrees from universities in several countries and received state decorations from allied nations.

In 2014, Castro was awarded China's Confucius Peace Prize, a prize established as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize. The award was given in recognition of what the organizers described as his contributions to world peace.

Castro's role in international affairs, particularly his leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement and Cuba's extensive medical internationalism programs, earned him recognition and solidarity from many developing nations. He was frequently invited to address the United Nations General Assembly and other international forums, where he spoke on issues of global inequality, imperialism, and Third World development.

At the same time, Castro was the subject of sustained criticism from international human rights organizations, Western governments, and exile communities for his government's treatment of political dissidents, restrictions on civil liberties, and one-party rule.

Legacy

Fidel Castro's legacy is among the most debated of any twentieth-century political figure. He governed Cuba longer than any other leader in the Western Hemisphere during the modern era, and his influence extended far beyond the island's borders.

Supporters credit Castro with transforming Cuba from a country marked by deep inequality, widespread illiteracy, and limited public health infrastructure into a nation with universal healthcare, free education through the university level, and social indicators that compare with those of far wealthier nations. Cuba's medical internationalism—the deployment of tens of thousands of doctors and healthcare workers to developing countries—is frequently cited as one of the revolution's most significant achievements.

Critics maintain that these social gains came at an unacceptable cost in political freedom. Under Castro's rule, Cuba lacked free elections, an independent judiciary, a free press, and the right to form independent political organizations. Tens of thousands of political prisoners were held at various points during his tenure, and hundreds of thousands of Cubans chose exile. The economy, despite periods of growth fueled by Soviet subsidies, struggled with inefficiency, scarcity, and dependence on foreign patrons.

Castro's defiance of the United States—surviving the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA's numerous reported assassination attempts, and decades of economic embargo—made him a symbol of resistance for anti-imperialist movements worldwide. His alliance with the Soviet Union and his role in the Cuban Missile Crisis placed him at the center of Cold War geopolitics. His support for liberation movements in Africa, particularly in Angola, contributed to the end of apartheid-era South Africa's military dominance in the region.

The question of Castro's historical significance remains open to interpretation, shaped by the observer's political perspective, geographic location, and values. What is not in dispute is the scale of his impact: for nearly half a century, Castro's decisions shaped the political trajectory of Cuba, influenced Cold War dynamics, and affected the lives of millions across the globe.