Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro
Castro in 1974
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
In office October 3, 1965 – April 19, 2011
Deputy	Raúl Castro
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
President of Cuba
In office December 2, 1976 – February 24, 2008
Deputy	Raúl Castro
Preceded by	Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
Prime Minister of Cuba
In office February 16, 1959 – December 2, 1976
President	Manuel Urrutia Lleó Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
Preceded by	José Miró Cardona
Succeeded by	Position abolished
7th and 23rd Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement
In office September 16, 2006 – February 24, 2008
Preceded by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Succeeded by	Raúl Castro
In office September 10, 1979 – March 6, 1983
Preceded by	Junius Richard Jayawardene
Succeeded by	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Personal details
Born	August 13, 1926 (1926-08-13) (age 84) Birán, Cuba
Political party	Communist Party of Cuba
Spouse(s)	Mirta Diaz-Balart (1948–1955) Dalia Soto del Valle (1980–present)
Relations	(siblings) Raúl Castro Enma Castro Agustina Castro Ramon Castro Ruz Angelita Castro
Children	Fidel Ángel Castro Diaz-Balart Alina Fernandez-Revuelta Alexis Castro-Soto Alejandro Castro-Soto Antonio Castro-Soto Angel Castro-Soto Alex Castro-Soto Jorge Angel Castro Francisca Pupo
Alma mater	University of Havana
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	None (Self-described as Secular; formerly Atheist)
Signature
*Acting presidential powers were transferred to Raúl Castro from July 31, 2006.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Spanish: [fiˈðel ˈkastro]; born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician, socialist revolutionary, and former political leader of the country.^[1] As the primary leader of the Cuban Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011. In 2006, he was succeeded by his younger brother, Raúl Castro, who is the current President of the Councils of State and Ministers, and who previously served under Fidel as Minister of Defence from 1959 to 2008.

While studying law at the University of Havana, he began his political career and became a recognized figure in Cuban politics. His political career continued with nationalist critiques of the president, Fulgencio Batista, and of the United States' political and corporate influence in Cuba. He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of the authorities.^[2] He eventually led the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated, and later released. He then traveled to Mexico^[3][4] to organize and train for an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Batista's government, which began in December 1956.

Castro subsequently came to power as a result of the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the US-backed^[5] dictatorship of Batista,^[6] and shortly thereafter became Prime Minister of Cuba.^[7] In 1965 he became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. In 1976 he became President of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers. He also held the supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.

Following intestinal surgery from an undisclosed digestive illness believed to have been diverticulitis,^[8] Castro transferred his responsibilities to the First Vice-President, his younger brother Raúl Castro, on July 31, 2006. On February 19, 2008, five days before his mandate was to expire, he announced he would neither seek nor accept a new term as either president or commander-in-chief.^[9][10] On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly elected Raúl Castro to succeed him as the President of Cuba.^[11] Castro is currently most active in commenting on world affairs, commonly in the form of his regularly published Reflections, articles offering his view on world events from US foreign policy to global warming.^[12]

Early life

Childhood and education: 1927–1945

A letter written by the 12-year-old Castro, learning English, to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt — "My good friend Roosevelt." In the letter Castro expresses his joy at Roosevelt's re-election, states his age as "twelve years old" and writes, "If you like, give me a ten dollar bill green American, because never, I have not seen a ten dollar bill," signing the letter, "Thank you very much. Good by [sic]. Your friend, Fidel Castro."^[13]

Fidel's father, Ángel Castro y Argiz (1875-1956) was a Spaniard born to a poor peasant family in rural Galicia, north-west Spain. Working as a manual laborer on local farms, in 1895 he was conscripted into the Spanish army to fight in the Cuban War of Independence against the Cuban forces who wished to cede from the Spanish Empire. The United States subsequently declared war on Spain, leading to the Spanish-American War of 1898, in which the U.S. seized control of Cuba from Spain, setting up their own American government on the island. In 1902, the Republic of Cuba was proclaimed, however it remained only partially independent of the U.S., which retained economic and political dominance over it. For a time, Cuba enjoyed economic growth, and Ángel Castro decided to migrate there permanently in search of employment.^[14][15][16] Doing so, he undertook various jobs, eventually earning enough money to set up his own business growing sugar cane on a farm in Birán, near Mayarí in Oriente Province.^[17][15][16]

Ángel took a wife, María Luisa Argota, with whom he had two daughters, but they separated after several years and he began a relationship with a household servant who was thirty years his junior.^[18][19] This woman, Lina Ruz González (September 23, 1903 – August 6, 1963),^[20] came from an impoverished Cuban family of Canarian descent, but became Ángel's domestic partner, bearing him three sons and four daughters.^[18][21][22]

Fidel was Lina's third child, being born at his father's farm on 13 August 1927,^[18][23][24] and was given his mother's surname of Ruz rather than his father's because he had been born out of wedlock, something that carried a particular social stigma at the time.^[25][26] Although he was from a prosperous background, with his father's business proving ever more profitable, his father ensured that he grew up alongside the children of the farm's workforce, many of whom were Haitian economic migrants of African descent,^[27][19] something that Fidel would later relate prevented him from absorbing "bourgeois culture" at an early age.^[28] Aged six, Fidel, along with his elder siblings Ramón and Angela, was sent to live with their teacher in Santiago de Cuba, and it was here that the children dwelt in cramped conditions and in relative poverty, often failing to have enough to eat because of their tutor's poor economic situation.^[29][30] Aged eight, Fidel was then baptized into the Roman Catholic Church (something usually performed soon after birth), although later gave up his faith in Christianity, becoming an atheist.^[29][31][32] Being baptized enabled Fidel to begin attending the La Salle boarding school in Santiago, but here he often got into trouble with the school authorities for misbehavior, and so he was instead sent to the privately-funded, Jesuit-run Dolores School in Santiago.^[33][34]

In 1945 he transferred to the more prestigious Jesuit-run El Colegio de Belén in Havana, although to get in he had to pretend to be a year older than he was; his father bribed an administrator to supply him with a fake birth certificate stating that he was born in 1926 rather than 1927.^[35] Although Fidel took an interest in history and debating at Belén, he did not excel academically, instead devoting much of his time to playing sport, including swimming, mountain climbing, table tennis, athletics, basketball and baseball.^[36][37] Meanwhile, Ángel Castro finally dissolved his first marriage when Fidel was fifteen, allowing him to marry Fidel's mother; Fidel was formally recognized by his father when he was seventeen, when his surname was legally changed from Ruz to Castro.^[25][26]

University and political involvement: 1945-1947

Grau and Batista, two Cuban presidents whose administrations were marked by corruption and political repression. Castro protested against both of them as a student.

In late 1945, Castro began studying law at the University of Havana.^[38][39] Here he became immediately embroiled in the student protest movement, which in Cuba at that time was particularly volatile: under the regimes of centre-left Cuban Presidents Gerardo Machado (1925-1933), Fulgencio Batista (1933-1944) and Ramón Grau (1944-1948) there had been a government crackdown on student protesters, with student leaders being killed or terrorized by violent gangs.^[40][41][42] This led to a form of gangsterismo culture within the university that was dominated by a variety of violent and often armed student groups who spent much of their time fighting one another and running criminal enterprises rather than opposing the government.^[43][44] Becoming surrounded by this gang culture, Castro focused on political objectives, unsuccessfully campaigning for the position of President of the Federation of University Students (FEU). To do so he put forward a platform of "honesty, decency and justice" and emphasized his opposition to political corruption, something that he increasingly associated with the involvement of the U.S. government in Cuban politics.^[45] He became passionate about anti-imperialism and opposing American intervention in the Caribbean, joining the University Committee for the Independence of Puerto Rico and the Committee for Democracy in the Dominican Republic.^[46]

He was in contact with members of several different student leftist groups at the time, including the Cuban Communist Party, the Socialist Revolutionary Movement (MAR) and the Insurrectional Revolutionary Union (UIR), although did not adopt the Marxist or communist ideas of the former and mistrusted some of MAR's connections to the Grau government. Castro himself had become highly critical of the corruption and violence of Grau's regime, delivering a public speech on the subject in November 1946 that earned him a place on the front page of several newspapers. Instead, it was to the UIR that he grew closest to, although whether he ever became a member or not has remained unknown.^[47] In 1947, Castro joined a newly founded socialist party, the Partido Ortodoxo, which had been formed by veteran politician Eduardo Chibás. A charismatic figure, Chibás attracted many Cubans with his message of social justice, honest government, and political freedom. The Partido Ortodoxo publicly exposed corruption and demanded governmental and social reform. Though Chibás lost the election, Castro, considering Chibás his mentor, remained committed to his cause, working fervently on his behalf.^{[48][49][50][51]} In 1951, while running for president again, Chibás shot himself in the stomach during a radio broadcast in an attempt to issue a "last wake-up call" to the Cuban people. Castro was present and accompanied him to the hospital where he died.^[52][53]

Meanwhile, the student gang violence had escalated after Grau had employed several prominent gang leaders, including members of the MAR, as officers in the police force, and Castro soon received a threat urging him to either leave the university and its political arena or be killed. He did not give in to the threat, instead going around with a gun and surrounded himself with friends who were similarly armed.^[54][55] Various accusations would arise in later years alleging that Castro carried out gang-related assassination attempts at this time, including of prominent UIR member Lionel Gómez, MSR leader Manolo Castro and university policeman Oscar Fernandez, but these are supported by "scant evidence" and remain unproven.^[56][57][58]

Latin American rebellions and early career: 1947-1952

In June 1947, Castro learned of a planned international expedition to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow its right-wing president, Rafael Trujillo, a military general widely seen as a dictator who had overseen a system of "repressive brutality" through the use of a violent secret police which routinely murdered and tortured opponents.^[59] An ally of the United States, Trujillo angered many across the world when he ordered the Parsley Massacre that killed 20,000-30,000 impoverished Haitian migrants.^[60] Castro had become a heavy critic of Trujillo's regime, rising to the presidency of the University Committee for Democracy in the Dominican Republic, and decided to join the military expedition, which was led by General Juan Rodríguez, a Dominican exile, and supported by Grau's Cuban government which feared Trujillo's militaristic behavior.^[61][62] The invasion was carried out on 29 July 1947 by around 1,200 men, most of whom were exiled Dominicans or Cubans, although other volunteers came from across Latin America. However, both Dominican and U.S. intelligence had gained foreknowledge of the event, and it was soon quashed by the Dominican army and the Cuban government, who had been pressured by the U.S. to cease their support for it. Whilst Grau's government immediately arrested many of those involved, Castro managed to escape the police by swimming away from the ship that he was aboard.^[63]

After a quick visit to Venezuela and Panama, in April 1948 Castro traveled to the city of Bogotá in Colombia with a number of other Cuban students. Once there, the assassination of popular leftist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala led to widespread rioting that came to be known as the Bogotazo. Leaving thousands dead, the riots revolved around clashes between rightist Conservatives, who then controlled the country's government, and leftist Liberals who were supported by a number of Colombian socialist groups. Castro, along with his fellow Cuban visitors, joined in in support of the Liberal cause by stealing guns from police officers, but subsequent police investigations came to the conclusion that neither Castro nor any of the other Cubans had been involved in the killings.^[65][66]

In 1948, Castro married Mirta Díaz Balart, a student from a wealthy Cuban family through whom he was exposed to the lifestyle of the Cuban elite. The relationship was a love match and was disapproved of by both of their families. Mirta's father gave them tens of thousands of dollars to spend in a three-month honeymoon in New York City, and the couple also received a US $1,000 wedding gift from former president Batista, a friend of Mirta's family.^[67]

Castro graduated from university in September 1950.^[68]

In March 1952, Batista seized power from President Prío, who fled to Mexico. Subsequently declaring himself to be president, Batista canceled the planned presidential elections, and described his new system as "disciplined democracy", but Castro, like many others, instead saw it as the establishment of a one-man dictatorship.^[52] Although in his earlier democratic terms as president Batista had taken a centre-left stance, he now moved to the right and went on to solidify his ties with the United States, severing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and persecuting socialist groups in Cuba.^[52] Intent on opposing the Batista administration, Castro decided to run as an independent candidate for the position of representative of Havana Province in Congress.^[69]

Cuban Revolution

Attack on Moncada Barracks

Fidel Castro under arrest in July 1953 after the Moncada attack.

As discontent over the Batista coup grew, Castro abandoned his law practice and formed an underground organization of supporters, including his brother, Raúl, and Mario Chanes de Armas. Together they actively plotted to overthrow Batista. They collected guns and ammunition and finalized their plans for an armed attack on Moncada Barracks, Batista's largest garrison outside Santiago de Cuba. On July 26, 1953, they attacked Moncada Barracks. The Céspedes garrison in Bayamo was also attacked as a diversion.^[3] The action proved disastrous; more than 60 of the 135 attackers were killed.

Castro and other surviving members of his group managed to escape to a part of the rugged Sierra Maestra^[70] mountains east of Santiago, but were eventually discovered and captured.

Although there is disagreement over why Castro and his brother Raúl were not executed on capture as many of their fellow militants were, there is evidence that an officer recognized Castro from his university days and ignored the unofficial order to execute the leader.^[3] Others, such as Angel Prado, military commander of July 26 Movement, say that on the morning of the attack Castro's driver got lost and he never reached the barracks. In his spoken autobiography^[71] Castro says that his car, which was second in the convoy of 'ten or twelve' cars, encountered a foot patrol near the Moncada Barracks; when he stopped the car to deal with them, the rest of the convoy also stopped and so the momentum of the operation was lost. He gives this as the sole reason for the failure of the operation.

Castro was tried in the fall of 1953 and sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison. During his trial Castro delivered his famous defense speech History Will Absolve Me,^[72] upholding his rebellious actions and boldly declaring his political views:

I warn you, I am just beginning! If there is in your hearts a vestige of love for your country, love for humanity, love for justice, listen carefully... I know that the regime will try to suppress the truth by all possible means; I know that there will be a conspiracy to bury me in oblivion. But my voice will not be stifled – it will rise from my breast even when I feel most alone, and my heart will give it all the fire that callous cowards deny it... Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.

While he was being held at the prison for political activists on Isla de Pinos, he continued to plot Batista's overthrow, planning upon release to reorganize and train in Mexico.^[3] After having served less than two years, he was released in May 1955 due to a general amnesty from Batista, who was under political pressure, and went as planned to Mexico.^[4]

July 26 Movement

Once in Mexico, Castro reunited with other Cuban exiles and founded the July 26 Movement, named after the date of the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks. The goal remained the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. Castro had learned from the Moncada experience that new tactics were needed if Batista's forces were to be defeated. This time, the plan was to use underground guerrilla tactics, which were used by the Cubans the last time they attempted a populist overthrow of what they considered an imperialistic regime. The Cuban war of Independence against the Spanish was Cuba's introduction to guerrilla warfare, about which they read once the Cuban campaign ended but was taken up by Emilio Aguinaldo in the Philippines. Once again, it would be guerrilla warfare to bring down a government.

In Mexico Castro met Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a proponent of guerrilla warfare. Guevara joined the group of rebels and became an important force in shaping Castro's evolving political beliefs. Guevara's observations of the misery of the poor in Latin America had already convinced him that the only solution lay in violent revolution.

Since regular contacts with a KGB agent named Nikolai Sergeevich Leonov in Mexico City had not resulted in the hoped for weapon supply,^[74] they decided to go to the United States to gather personnel and funds from Cubans living there, including Carlos Prío Socarrás, the elected Cuban president deposed by Batista in 1952. Back in Mexico, the group trained under a Spanish Civil War Veteran, Cuban-born Alberto Bayo^[72] who had fled to Mexico after Francisco Franco's victory in Spain. On November 26, 1956, Castro and his group of 81 followers, mostly Cuban exiles, set out from Tuxpan, Veracruz, aboard the yacht Granma for the purpose of starting a rebellion in Cuba.^[75]

The rebels landed at Playa Las Coloradas close to Los Cayuelos near the eastern city of Manzanillo on December 2, 1956. In short order, most of Castro's men were killed, dispersed, or taken prisoner by Batista's forces.^[75] While the exact number is in dispute, it is agreed that no more than twenty of the original eighty-two men survived the bloody encounters with the Cuban army and succeeded in fleeing to the Sierra Maestra mountains.^[76] The group of survivors included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raúl Castro, and Camilo Cienfuegos. Those who survived were aided by people in the countryside. They regrouped in the Sierra Maestra in Oriente province and organized a column under Fidel Castro's command.

From their encampment in the Sierra Maestra mountains, July 26 Movement waged a guerrilla war against the Batista government. In the cities and major towns also, resistance groups were organizing until underground groups were everywhere. The strongest was in Santiago formed by Frank País.^[77][78]

In the summer of 1957, País’s organization merged with July 26 Movement of Castro. As Castro's movement gained popular support in the cities and countryside, it grew to over eight hundred men. In mid-1957 Castro gave Che Guevara command of a second column. A journalist, Herbert Matthews from the New York Times, came to interview him in the Sierra Maestra, attracting interest to Castro's cause in the United States. The New York Times front page stories by Matthews presented Castro as a romantic and appealing revolutionary, bearded and dressed in rumpled fatigues.^[79][80] Castro and Matthews were followed by the TV crew of Andrew Saint George, said to be a CIA contact person.^[81] Through television, Castro's rudimentary command of the English language and charismatic presence enabled him to appeal directly to a U.S. audience.

In 1957, Castro also signed the Manifesto of the Sierra Maestra^[82] in which he agreed to call elections under the Electoral Code of 1943 within the first 18 months of his time in power and to restore all of the provisions of the 1940 Constitution of Cuba that had been suspended under Batista. While he took steps to implement some of the measures in the Manifesto upon coming into power, Cuba failed to have elections, the most important part of the program, within the allotted time.

In February 1958, Castro published in Coronet Magazine a famous statement of the goals of the movement.^[83] He stated that "we are fighting to do away with dictatorship in Cuba and to establish the foundations of genuine representative government" and promised to "prepare and conduct truly honest general elections within twelve months" after success. He also stated, "we have no plans for the expropriation or nationalization of foreign investments here". He also justified his attacks on Cuba's economy as the only way to bring down the Batista dictatorship. Despite his denouncement of dictatorships, Castro himself has been described as a dictator.^[84][85][86]

Operation Verano

In May 1958, Batista launched Operation Verano aiming to crush Castro and other anti-government groups. It was called La Ofensiva ("The Offensive") by the rebels (Alarcón Ramírez,1997). Although on paper heavily outnumbered, Castro's guerrilla forces scored a series of victories, largely aided by mass desertions from Batista's army of poorly trained and uncommitted young conscripts. During the Battle of La Plata, Castro's forces defeated an entire battalion. While pro-Castro Cuban sources later emphasized the role of Castro's guerrilla forces in these battles, other groups and leaders were also involved, such as escopeteros (poorly armed irregulars). During the Battle of Las Mercedes, Castro's small army came close to defeat but he managed to pull his troops out by opening up negotiations with General Cantillo while secretly slipping his soldiers out of a trap.

When Operation Verano ended, Castro ordered three columns commanded by Guevara, Jaime Vega and Camilo Cienfuegos to invade central Cuba where they were strongly supported by rebellious elements who had long been operating in the area. One of Castro's columns moved out onto the Cauto Plains. Here, they were supported by Huber Matos, Raúl Castro and others who were operating in the eastern-most part of the province. On the plains, Castro's forces first surrounded the town of Guisa in Granma Province and drove out their enemies, then proceeded to take most of the towns that had been taken by Calixto García in the 1895–1898 Cuban War of Independence.

Battle of Yaguajay

In December 1958, the columns of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos continued their advance through Las Villas province. They succeeded in occupying several towns, and then began preparations for an attack on Santa Clara, the provincial capital. Guevara's fighters launched a fierce assault on the Cuban army surrounding Santa Clara, and a vicious house-to-house battle ensued. They also derailed an armored train which Batista had sent to aid his troops in the city while Cienfuegos won the Battle of Yaguajay. Defeated on all sides, Batista's forces crumbled. The provincial capital was captured after less than a day of fighting on December 31, 1958.

Collapse of the Batista regime

After the loss at the Battle of Santa Clara, expecting betrayal by his own army and having lost all backup from the previously supportive US government, Batista (accompanied by president-elect Andrés Rivero Agüero) boarded a plane and fled to the Dominican Republic in the early hours of January 1, 1959. Accompanying Batista into exile was an amassed fortune of more than US$300,000,000 that he acquired through "graft and payoffs."^[87]

Batista left behind a junta headed by Gen. Eulogio Cantillo, recently the commander in Oriente province, the center of the Castro revolt. The junta immediately selected Dr. Carlos Piedra, the oldest judge of the Supreme Court, as provisional President of Cuba as specified in the Constitution of 1940. Castro refused to accept the selection of Justice Piedra as provisional President and the Supreme Court refused to administer the oath of office to the Justice.^[88]

The rebel forces of Fidel Castro moved swiftly to seize power throughout the island.^[88] At the age of 32, Castro had successfully masterminded a classic guerrilla campaign from his headquarters in the Sierra Maestra and ousted Batista.

New government

On January 8, 1959, Castro's army rolled victoriously into Havana^[89] and would shortly thereafter declare that "power does not interest me, and I will not take it."^[90] As news of the fall of Batista's government spread through Havana, The New York Times described the scene as one of jubilant crowds pouring into the streets and automobile horns honking. The black and red flag of July 26 Movement waved on automobiles and buildings. The atmosphere was chaotic.^[88] Castro called a general strike in protest of the Piedra government. He demanded that Dr. Urrutia, former judge of the Urgency Court of Santiago de Cuba, be installed as the provisional President instead.

Law professor José Miró Cardona created a new government with himself as prime minister and Manuel Urrutia Lleó as president on January 5. The United States officially recognized the new government two days later.^[91] Castro himself arrived in Havana to cheering crowds and assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on January 8.

Castro consolidates power

"Until Castro, the U.S. was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that the American ambassador was the second most important man, sometimes even more important than the Cuban president."

– Earl T. Smith, former American Ambassador to Cuba, during 1960 testimony to the U.S. Senate^[92]

Fidel Castro sought to oust liberals and democrats, such as José Miró Cardona and Manuel Urrutia Lleó. In February professor José Miró Cardona had to resign because of Castro's attacks. On February 16, 1959, Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba.^[7] Professor Miró soon went into exile in the United States, and would later participate in the Bay of Pigs Invasion against Castro's form of government. President Manuel Urrutia Lleó wanted to restore elections, but Castro opposed free elections.^[93] Castro's slogan was "Revolution first, elections later".^[94]

During this period Castro repeatedly denied being a communist.^{[95][96][97][98][99]} For example in New York on April 25 he said, "...[communist] influence is nothing. I don't agree with communism. We are democracy. We are against all kinds of dictators... That is why we oppose communism."^[100]

Between April 15 and April 26, Castro and a delegation of industrial and international representatives visited the U.S. as guests of the Press Club. Castro hired one of the best public relations firms in the United States for a charm offensive visit by Castro and his recently initiated government. Castro answered impertinent questions jokingly and ate hot dogs and hamburgers. His rumpled fatigues and scruffy beard cut a popular figure easily promoted as an authentic hero.^[101] He was refused a meeting with President Eisenhower. After his visit to the United States, he would go on to join forces with the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev.^[89]

On May 17, 1959, Castro signed into law the First Agrarian Reform, which limited landholdings to 993 acres (4 km²) per owner and forbade foreign land ownership.^[102][103]

Castro started to organize attacks on President Manuel Urrutia Lleó. Castro himself resigned as Prime Minister of Cuba and later that day appeared on television to deliver a lengthy denouncement of Urrutia, claiming that Urrutia "complicated" government, and that his "fevered anti-Communism" was having a detrimental effect. Castro's sentiments received widespread support as organized crowds surrounded the presidential palace demanding Urrutia's resignation, which was duly received. On July 23, Castro resumed his position as premier and appointed Osvaldo Dorticós as the new president.^[104]

Years in power

As early as July 1959, Castro's intelligence chief Ramiro Valdés contacted the KGB in Mexico City.^[74] Subsequently, the USSR sent over one hundred mostly Spanish speaking advisors, including Enrique Líster Forján, to organize the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

In February 1960, Cuba signed an agreement to buy oil from the USSR. When the U.S.-owned refineries in Cuba refused to process the oil, they were expropriated, and the United States broke off diplomatic relations with the Castro government soon afterward. To the concern of the Eisenhower administration, Cuba began to establish closer ties with the Soviet Union. A variety of pacts were signed between Castro and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, allowing Cuba to receive large amounts of economic and military aid from the USSR.

In June 1960, Eisenhower reduced Cuba's sugar import quota by 7,000,000 tons, and in response, Cuba nationalized some US$850 million worth of U.S. property and businesses. Health care^[105] was socialized. The new government took control of the country by nationalizing industry, redistributing property, collectivizing agriculture and creating policies that would benefit the poor. While popular among the poor, these policies alienated many former supporters of the revolution among the Cuban middle and upper-classes.

Fidel Castro and members of the East German Politburo in 1972.

By the early autumn of 1960, the U.S. government was engaged in a semi-secret campaign to remove Castro from power.^[106]

In September 1960, Castro created Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which implemented neighborhood spying in an effort to weed out "counter-revolutionary" activities.^[107]

By the end of 1960, all opposition newspapers had been closed down and all radio and television stations were in state control, run under the Leninist principle of Democratic Centralism.^[107] Moderates, teachers and professors were purged.^[107] He was accused of keeping about 20,000 dissidents held captive and tortured under inhuman prison conditions every year.^[107]

Groups such as homosexuals were locked up in concentration camps in the 1960s, where they were subject to medical-political "re-education".^[108] Castro's admiring description of rural life in Cuba ("in the country, there are no homosexuals"^[109]) reflected the idea of homosexuality as bourgeois decadence, and he denounced "maricones" (faggots) as "agents of imperialism".^[110] Castro stated that "homosexuals should not be allowed in positions where they are able to exert influence upon young people".^[111] However, in August 2010, Castro called the sending of openly gay men to labor camps without charge or trial "moments of great injustice, great injustice!" saying that "if someone is responsible, it's me."^[112]

Loyalty to Castro became the primary criteria for all appointments on the island.^[113] The Communist Party strengthened its one-party rule, with Castro as the Prime Minister.^[107]

In the 1961 New Year's Day parade, Castro exhibited Soviet tanks and other weapons.^[113] The Soviet Union awarded him the Lenin Peace Prize later that year.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Che Guevara (left) and Castro, photographed by Alberto Korda in 1961.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón, or Playa Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a US-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days.

Reaction: the socialist state

On May 1, 1961, Castro declared Cuba a socialist state and officially abolished multiparty elections.^[114] Critics noted that Castro feared elections would eject him from power.^[114] On the same day Castro announced to the hundreds of thousands in his audience that:

The revolution has no time for elections. There is no more democratic government in Latin America than the revolutionary government. ... If Mr. Kennedy does not like Socialism, we do not like imperialism. We do not like capitalism.^[115]

In a nationally broadcast speech on December 2, 1961, Castro declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was adopting Communism. On February 7, 1962, the US imposed an embargo against Cuba. This embargo was broadened during 1962 and 1963, including a general travel ban for American tourists.^[116]

Cuban Missile Crisis

Tensions between Cuba and the U.S. heightened during the 1962 missile crisis, which nearly brought the U.S. and the USSR into nuclear conflict. Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to a possible U.S. invasion and justified the move in response to U.S. missile deployment in Turkey. After consultations with his military advisors, he met with a Cuban delegation led by Raúl Castro in July in order to work out the specifics. It was agreed to deploy Soviet R-12 MRBMs on Cuban soil; however, American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance discovered the construction of the missile installations on October 15, 1962 before the weapons had actually been deployed.

The U.S. government viewed the installation of Soviet nuclear weapons 90 miles (145 km) south of Key West as an aggressive act and a threat to U.S. security. As a result, the U.S. publicly announced its discovery on October 22, 1962, and implemented a quarantine around Cuba that would actively intercept and search any vessels heading for the island. Nikolai Sergevich Leonov, who would become a General in the KGB Intelligence Directorate^[117] and the Soviet KGB deputy station chief in Warsaw, was the translator Castro used for contact with the Russians during this period.

In a personal letter to Khrushchev dated October 27, 1962, Castro urged him to launch a nuclear first strike against the United States if Cuba were invaded, but Khrushchev rejected any first strike response.^[118] Soviet field commanders in Cuba were, however, authorized to use tactical nuclear weapons if attacked by the United States. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. commitment not to invade Cuba and an understanding that the US would secretly remove American MRBMs targeting the Soviet Union from Turkey and Italy, a measure that the U.S. implemented a few months later.

Assassination attempts

Fabian Escalante, who was long tasked with protecting the life of Castro, estimated the number of assassination schemes or attempts by the CIA to be 638. Some such attempts allegedly included an exploding cigar, a fungal-infected scuba-diving suit, and a mafia-style shooting. Some of these plots are depicted in a documentary entitled 638 Ways to Kill Castro.^[119] One of these attempts was by his ex-lover Marita Lorenz whom he met in 1959. She allegedly agreed to aid the CIA and attempted to smuggle a jar of cold cream containing poison pills into his room. When Castro realized, he reportedly gave her a gun and told her to kill him but her nerve failed.^[120] Castro once said, in regards to the numerous attempts on his life he believes have been made, "If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal."

According to the Family Jewels documents declassified by the CIA in 2007, one such assassination attempt before the Bay of Pigs invasion involved Johnny Roselli and Al Capone's successor in the Chicago Outfit, Salvatore Giancana and his right-hand man Santos Trafficante. It was personally authorized by the then US attorney general Robert Kennedy.^[121]

Giancana and Miami Syndicate leader Santos Trafficante were contacted in September 1960 about the possibility of an assassination attempt by a go-between from the CIA, Robert Maheu, after Maheu had contacted Johnny Roselli, a member of the Las Vegas Syndicate and Giancana's number-two man. Maheu had presented himself as a representative of numerous international business firms in Cuba that were being expropriated by Castro. He offered US$150,000 for the "removal" of Castro through this operation (the documents suggest that neither Roselli nor Giancana and Trafficante accepted any sort of payments for the job). According to the files, it was Giancana who suggested using a series of poison pills that could be used to doctor Castro's food and drink. These pills were given by the CIA to Giancana's nominee Juan Orta, whom Giancana presented as being an official in the Cuban government who was also in the pay of gambling interests, and who did have access to Castro.^{[122][123][124]}

After a series of six attempts to introduce the poison into Castro's food, Orta abruptly demanded to be let out of the mission, handing over the job to another, unnamed participant. Later, a second attempt was mounted through Giancana and Trafficante using Dr. Anthony Verona, the leader of the Cuban Exile Junta, who had, according to Trafficante, become "disaffected with the apparent ineffectual progress of the Junta". Verona requested US$10,000 in expenses and US$1,000 worth of communications equipment. However, it is unknown how far the second attempt went, as the entire program was cancelled shortly thereafter due to the launching of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.^{[122][123][124]}

United States embargo

Castro arriving at the MATS Terminal in Washington D.C in 1959

José María Aznar, former Spanish Prime Minister, wrote that the embargo was Castro's greatest ally, and that Castro would lose his presidency within three months if the embargo was lifted.^[125] Castro retained control after Cuba became bankrupt and isolated following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The synergic contraction of Cuban economy resulted in eighty-five percent of its markets disappearing, along with subsidies and trade agreements that had supported it, causing extended gas and water outages, severe power shortages, and dwindling food supplies.^[126]

In 1994, the island's economy plunged into what was called the "Special Period"; teetering on the brink of collapse. Cuba legalized the US dollar, turned to tourism, and encouraged the transfer of remittances in US dollars from Cubans living in the USA to their relatives on the Island. After massive damage caused by Hurricane Michelle in 2001, Castro proposed a one-time cash purchase of food from the U.S. while declining a U.S. offer of humanitarian aid.^[127]

The U.S. authorized the shipment of food in 2001, the first since the embargo was imposed.^[128] During 2004, Castro shut down 118 factories, including steel plants, sugar mills and paper processors to compensate for the crisis due to fuel shortages,^[129] and in 2005 directed thousands of Cuban doctors to Venezuela in exchange for oil imports.^[130]

Foreign relations

Soviet Union

Following the establishment of diplomatic ties to the Soviet Union, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba became increasingly dependent on Soviet markets and military and economic aid. Castro was able to build a formidable military force with the help of Soviet equipment and military advisors. The KGB kept in close touch with Havana, and Castro tightened Communist Party control over all levels of government, the media, and the educational system, while developing a Soviet-style internal police force. Castro's alliance with the Soviet Union caused something of a split between him and Guevara. In 1966, Guevara left for Bolivia in an ill-fated attempt to stir up revolution against the country's government.

Cuba's relations with the Soviet Union became strained when Cuba continued to recognise Israel as an independent state; the Soviet Union and it's satellite states in the Eastern Bloc (with the exception of the Socialist Republic of Romania) had broken of diplomatic ties with Israel the earlier year. Relations became even more sour when Alexei Kosygin, the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, visited Cuba in the aftermath of the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference. During the visit Kosygin pressured Castro to end diplomatic relations with Cuba^{[clarification needed]}, Castro responded by demanding that the Soviet Union end diplomatic relations with the United States.^[132]

On August 23, 1968, Castro made a public gesture to the USSR that caused the Soviet leadership to reaffirm their support for him. Two days after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia to repress the Prague Spring, Castro took to the airwaves and publicly denounced the Czech rebellion. Castro warned the Cuban people about the Czechoslovakian 'counterrevolutionaries', who "were moving Czechoslovakia towards capitalism and into the arms of imperialists". He called the leaders of the rebellion "the agents of West Germany and fascist reactionary rabble."^[133] In return for his public backing of the invasion, at a time when many Soviet allies were deeming the invasion an infringement of Czechoslovakia's sovereignty, the Soviets bailed out the Cuban economy with extra loans and an immediate increase in oil exports.

In 1971, despite an Organization of American States convention that no nation in the Western Hemisphere would have a relationship with Cuba (the only exception being Mexico, which had refused to adopt that convention), Castro took a month-long visit to Chile, following the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. The visit, in which Castro participated actively in the internal politics of the country, holding massive rallies and giving public advice to Salvador Allende, was seen by those on the political right as proof to support their view that "The Chilean Way to Socialism" was an effort to put Chile on the same path as Cuba.^[134]

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Cuba in 1989, the camaraderie between Havana and Moscow was strained by Gorbachev's implementation of economic and political reforms in the USSR. "We are witnessing sad things in other socialist countries, very sad things," lamented Castro in November 1989, in reference to the changes that were sweeping such communist allies as the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland.^[135] The subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 had an immediate and devastating effect on Cuba.

Other countries

"As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry, but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger."

– Fidel Castro, 2002^[136]

Castro in 1974

On November 4, 1975, Castro ordered the deployment of Cuban troops to Angola in order to aid the Marxist MPLA-ruled government against the South African-backed UNITA opposition forces. Moscow aided the Cuban initiative with the USSR engaging in a massive airlift of Cuban forces into Angola. On Cuba's role in Angola, Nelson Mandela is said to have remarked "Cuban internationalists have done so much for African independence, freedom, and justice."^[137]

Cuban troops were also sent to Marxist Ethiopia to assist Ethiopian forces in the Ogaden War with Somalia in 1977. In addition, Castro extended support to Marxist Revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, such as aiding the Sandinistas in overthrowing the Somoza government in Nicaragua in 1979. It has been claimed by the Carthage Foundation-funded Center for a Free Cuba^[138] that an estimated 14,000 Cubans were killed in Cuban military actions abroad.^[139] Castro never disclosed the amount of casualties in Soviet African wars, but one estimate is 14,000, a high number for the small country.^[140]

Juan Antonio Rodríguez Mernier, a former Cuban Intelligence Major who defected in 1987, says the regime made large amounts of money from drug trafficking operations in the 1970s. The cash was to be deposited in Fidel's Swiss bank accounts "in order to finance liberation movements".^[141] Norberto Fuentes, a defected member of the Castro brothers' inner circle, has provided details about these operations. According to him, an operation conducted in cooperation with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine helped Cuban intelligence to steal one billion by robbing banks in Lebanon during the 1975–76 civil war. Gold bars, jewelry, gems, and museum pieces were carried in diplomatic pouches via air route Beirut-Moscow-Havana. Castro personally greeted the robbers as heroes.^[141]

Cuba and Panama restored diplomatic ties in 2005 after breaking them off a year prior when Panama's former president pardoned four Cuban exiles accused of attempting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000. The foreign minister of each country re-established official diplomatic relations in Havana by signing a document describing a spirit of fraternity that has long linked both nations.^[142] Cuba, once shunned by many of its Latin American neighbours, now has full diplomatic relations with all but Costa Rica and El Salvador.^[142]

Although the relationship between Cuba and Mexico remains strained, each side appears to make attempts to improve it. In 1998, Fidel Castro apologized for remarks he made about Mickey Mouse which led Mexico to recall its ambassador from Havana. He said he intended no offense when he said earlier that Mexican children would find it easier to name Disney characters than to recount key figures in Mexican history. Rather, he said, his words were meant to underscore the cultural dominance of the US.^[143] Mexican president Vicente Fox apologized to Fidel Castro in 2002 over statements by Castro, who had taped their telephone conversation, to the effect that Fox forced him to leave a United Nations summit in Mexico so that he would not be in the presence of President Bush, who also attended.^[144]

At a summit meeting of sixteen Caribbean countries in 1998, Castro called for regional unity, saying that only strengthened cooperation between Caribbean countries would prevent their domination by rich nations in a global economy.^[145] Caribbean nations have embraced Cuba's Fidel Castro while accusing the US of breaking trade promises. Castro, until recently a regional outcast, has been increasing grants and scholarships to the Caribbean countries, while US aid has dropped 25% over the past five years.^[146] Cuba has opened four additional embassies in the Caribbean Community including: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Suriname, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This development makes Cuba the only country to have embassies in all independent countries of the Caribbean Community.^[147]

North Korea has granted Castro "the Golden Medal (Hammer and Sickle) and the First Class Order of the National Flag".^[148]

Libyan de facto leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has granted Castro a "Libyan human rights prize".^[149] On a visit to South Africa in 1998 he was warmly received by President Nelson Mandela.^[150] President Mandela gave Castro South Africa's highest civilian award for foreigners, the Order of Good Hope.^[151] Last December Castro fulfilled his promise of sending 100 medical aid workers to Botswana, according to the Botswana presidency. These workers play an important role in Botswana's war against HIV/AIDS. According to Anna Vallejera, Cuba's first-ever Ambassador to Botswana, the health workers are part of her country's ongoing commitment to proactively assist in the global war against HIV/AIDS,^[152]

In Harlem, Castro is seen as an icon because of his historic visit with Malcolm X in 1960 at the Hotel Theresa.^[153]

Castro was known to be a friend of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and was an honorary pall bearer at Trudeau's funeral in October 2000. They had continued their friendship after Trudeau left office until his death. Canada became one of the first American allies openly to trade with Cuba. Cuba still has a good relationship with Canada. In 1998, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien arrived in Cuba to meet President Castro and highlight their close ties. He is the first Canadian government leader to visit the island since Pierre Trudeau was in Havana in 1976.^[154]

The European Union accuses the Castro regime of "continuing flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms".^[155] In December 2001, European Union representatives described their political dialogue with Cuba as back on track after a weekend of talks in Havana. The EU praised Cuba's willingness to discuss questions of human rights. Cuba is the only Latin American country without an economic co-operation agreement with the EU. However, trade with individual European countries remains strong since the US trade embargo on Cuba leaves the market free from American rivals.^[156]

In 2005, EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel ended his visit to Cuba optimistic that relations with the communist state will become stronger. The EU is Cuba's largest trading partner. Cuba's imprisonment of 75 dissidents and the execution of three hijackers have strained diplomatic relations. However, the EU commissioner was impressed with Fidel Castro's willingness to discuss these concerns, although he received no commitments from Castro. Cuba does not admit to holding political prisoners, seeing them rather as mercenaries in the pay of the United States.^[157]

Castro is seen as an icon by leaders of recent socialist governments in Latin America. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is a long-time admirer and reached agreements with Cuba to provide subsidized petroleum in exchange for Cuban medical assistance. Evo Morales of Bolivia has described him as "the grandfather of all Latin American revolutionaries".^[158]

In September 2010, The Atlantic began publishing a series of articles by Jeffrey Goldberg based on extensive and wide-ranging interviews by Goldberg and Julia E. Sweig with Castro, the first of which lasted five hours. Castro contacted Goldberg after he read one of Goldberg's articles on whether Israel would launch an pre-emptive air strike on Iran should it come close to acquiring nuclear weapons. While warning against the dangers of Western confrontation with Iran in which inadvertently, "a gradual escalation could become a nuclear war," Castro "unequivocally" defended Israel's right to exist and condemned antisemitism, while criticizing some of the rhetoric on Israel by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, under whom Iran–Israel relations have become increasingly hostile:

Asked by Goldberg if he would tell Ahmadinejad the same things, Castro responded, "I am saying this so you can communicate it". Castro "criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and explained why the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the 'unique' history of antisemitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence."^[159]

Religious beliefs

Castro was baptized and raised a Roman Catholic as a child but did not practice as one. In Oliver Stone's documentary Comandante, Castro states "I have never been a believer", and has total conviction that there is only one life.^[160] Pope John XXIII excommunicated Castro in 1962 after Castro suppressed Catholic institutions in Cuba.^[161]

In 1992, Castro agreed to loosen restrictions on religion and even permitted church-going Catholics to join the Cuban Communist Party. He began describing his country as "secular" rather than "atheist".^[162] Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, the first visit by a reigning pontiff to the island. Castro and the Pope appeared side by side in public on several occasions during the visit. Castro wore a dark blue business suit rather than fatigues in his public meetings with the Pope and treated him with reverence and respect.^[163] In December 1998, Castro formally re-instated Christmas Day as the official celebration for the first time since its abolition by the Communist Party in 1969.^[164] Cubans were again allowed to mark Christmas as a holiday and to openly hold religious processions. The Pope sent a telegram to Castro thanking him for restoring Christmas as a public holiday.^[165]

Castro attended a Roman Catholic convent blessing in 2003. The purpose of this unprecedented event was to help bless the newly restored convent in Old Havana and to mark the fifth anniversary of the Pope's visit to Cuba.^[166]

The senior spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian faith arrived in Cuba in 2004, the first time any Orthodox Patriarch has visited Latin America in the Church's history: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I consecrated a cathedral in Havana and bestowed an honor on Fidel Castro.^[167] His aides said that he was responding to the decision of the Cuban Government to build and donate to the Orthodox Christians a tiny Orthodox cathedral in the heart of old Havana.^[168]

After Pope John Paul II's death in April 2005, an emotional Castro attended a mass in his honor in Havana's cathedral and signed the Pope's condolence book at the Vatican Embassy.^[169] He had last visited the cathedral in 1959, 46 years earlier, for the wedding of one of his sisters. Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino led the mass and welcomed Castro, who was dressed in a black suit, expressing his gratitude for the "heartfelt way the death of our Holy Father John Paul II was received (in Cuba)."^[170]

Castro has publicly criticised what he sees as elements of the Bible that have been used to justify the opression of both women and people of African descent throughout history.^[171]

Succession issues

According to Article 94 of the Cuban Constitution, the First Vice President of the Council of State assumes presidential duties upon the illness or death of the president. Raúl Castro was the person in that position for the last 32 years of Fidel Castro's presidency.

Speculation on illness 1998–2005

Due to the issue of presidential succession and Castro's longevity, there have long been rumors, speculation and hoaxing about Castro's health and demise. In 1998 there were reports that he had a serious brain disease, later discredited.^[172] In June 2001, he apparently fainted during a seven-hour speech under the Caribbean sun.^[173] Later that day he finished the speech, walking buoyantly into the television studios in his military fatigues, joking with journalists.^[174]

In January 2004, Luis Eduardo Garzón, the mayor of Bogotá, said that Castro "seemed very sick to me" following a meeting with him during a vacation in Cuba.^[175] In May 2004, Castro's physician denied that his health was failing, and speculated that he would live to be 140 years old. Dr. Eugenio Selman Housein said that the "press is always speculating about something, that he had a heart attack once, that he had cancer, some neurological problem", but maintained that Castro was in good health.^[176]

On October 20, 2004, Castro tripped and fell following a speech he gave at a rally, breaking his kneecap and fracturing his right arm.^[177] He was able to recover his ability to walk and publicly demonstrated this two months later.^[178]

In 2005, the CIA said it thought Castro had Parkinson's disease.^[179][180] Castro denied such allegations, while also citing the example of Pope John Paul II in saying that he would not fear the disease.^[181]

Transfer of duties, speculation on illness 2006–2007

On July 31, 2006, Castro delegated his duties as President of the Council of state, President of the Council of Ministers, First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party and the post of commander in chief of the armed forces to his brother Raúl Castro. This transfer of duties was described at the time as temporary while Fidel recovered from surgery he underwent due to an "acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding".^[182] Fidel Castro was too ill to attend the nationwide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Granma boat landing on December 2, 2006, which also became his belated 80th birthday celebrations. Castro's non-appearance fueled reports that he had terminal pancreatic cancer and was refusing treatment,^[183] but on December 17, 2006 Cuban officials stated that Castro had no terminal illness and would eventually return to his public duties.^[184][185]

Castro in 2003

However, on December 24, 2006, Spanish newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya reported that Spanish surgeon José Luis García Sabrido had been flown to Cuba on a plane chartered by the Cuban government. Dr. García Sabrido is an intestinal expert who further specializes in the treatment of cancer. The plane that Dr. García Sabrido's traveled in also was reported to be carrying a large quantity of advanced medical equipment.^[186][187] On December 26, 2006, shortly after returning to Madrid, Dr. García Sabrido held a news conference in which he answered questions about Castro's health. He stated that "He does not have cancer, he has a problem with his digestive system," and added, "His condition is stable. He is recovering from a very serious operation. It is not planned that he will undergo another operation for the moment."^[188] Although most Cubans acknowledge that they are aware Castro is seriously ill, most also seem worried about a future without Castro.^[189]

On January 16, 2007, the Spanish newspaper, El País, citing two unnamed sources from the Gregorio Marañón hospital —who employs Dr. García Sabrido— in Madrid, reported Castro was in "very grave" condition, having trouble wound healing, after three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection caused by a severe case of diverticulitis. However, Dr. García Sibrido told CNN that he was not the source of the report and that "any statement that doesn't come directly from [Castro's] medical team is without foundation."^[190] Also, a Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the reports were lies and declined to comment, while White House press secretary Tony Snow said the report appeared to be "just sort of a roundup of previous health reports. We've got nothing new."^{[191][192][193]} On January 30, 2007, Cuban television and the paper Juventud Rebelde showed fresh video and photos from a meeting between Castro and Hugo Chávez said to have taken place the previous day.^[194][195]

In mid-February 2007, it was reported by the Associated Press that Acting President Raúl Castro had said that Fidel Castro's health was improving and he was taking part in all important issues facing the government. "He's consulted on the most important questions," Raúl Castro said of Fidel. "He doesn't interfere, but he knows about everything."^[196] On February 27, 2007, Reuters reported that Fidel Castro had called into Aló Presidente, a live radio talk show hosted by Hugo Chávez, and chatted with him for thirty minutes during which time he sounded "much healthier and more lucid" than he had on any of the audio and video tapes released since his surgery in July. Castro reportedly told Chávez, "I am gaining ground. I feel I have more energy, more strength, more time to study," adding with a chuckle, "I have become a student again." Later in the conversation (transcript in Spanish; audio) , he made reference to the fall of the world stock markets that had occurred earlier in the day and remarked that it was proof of his contention that the world capitalist system is in crisis.^[197]

Reports of improvements in his condition continued to circulate throughout March and early April. On April 13, 2007, Chávez was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that Castro has "almost totally recovered" from his illness. That same day, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Roque confirmed during a press conference in Vietnam that Castro had improved steadily and had resumed some of his leadership responsibilities.^[198] On April 21, 2007, the official newspaper Granma reported that Castro had met for over an hour with Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party who was visiting Havana. Photographs of their meeting showed the Cuban president looking healthier than he had in any previously released since his surgery.^[199]

As a comment on Castro’s recovery, U.S. President George W. Bush said: "One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away," Hearing about this, Castro, who is thought to be atheist, ironically replied: "Now I understand why I survived Bush's plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me."^[200]

In January 2009 Castro asked Cubans not to worry about his lack of recent news columns, his failing health, and not to be disturbed by his future death.^[201] At the same time pictures were released of Castro's meeting with the Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on January 21, 2009.^[202]

Retirement

Wikinews has related news: Fidel Castro resigns as Cuban president

"I'm really happy to reach 80. I never expected it, not least having a neighbor – the greatest power in the world – trying to kill me every day."

— Fidel Castro, July 21, 2006^[203]

In a letter dated February 18, 2008, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of president and commander in chief at the February 24, 2008 National Assembly meetings, saying "I will not aspire to nor accept—I repeat I will not aspire to or accept—the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief,"^[204] effectively announcing his retirement from official public life.^{[205][206][207]} The letter was published online by the official Communist Party newspaper Granma. In it, Castro stated that his health was a primary reason for his decision, stating that "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer".^[208]

Fidel Castro's brother Raúl Castro and Dmitry Medvedev.

Wikinews has related news: Raúl Castro chosen new President of Cuba

On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly of People's Power unanimously chose his brother, Raúl Castro, as Fidel's successor as President of Cuba.^[11] In his first speech as Fidel’s successor, he proposed to the National Assembly of People's Power that Fidel continue to be consulted on matters of great importance, such as defence, foreign policy and "the socioeconomic development of the country". The proposal was immediately and unanimously approved by the 597 members of the National Assembly. Raúl described his brother as "not substitutable".^[209] Castro had already given up the post of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba on July 31, 2006.^[210][211]

Since his retirement, Castro has written a regular column in Granma called "Reflections", in which he writes on world affairs, and has occasionally made pre-taped appearances on television greeting visitors such as Hugo Chávez in his room. In July 2010, he made his first public appearance greeting workers at a science centre and gave his most prominent television interview since falling ill, on the Cuban program Mesa Redonda speaking for an extended period about tensions between the United States, Iran and North Korea.^[212]

On August 7, 2010, Castro gave his first speech to the Cuban National Assembly in four years. He addressed the body for ten minutes on international affairs and then remained to listen and respond to questions for a further 70 minutes. In his comments he urged the United States not to go to war with Iran or North Korea and warning about the dangers of a nuclear holocaust. When asked whether Castro may be re-entering government, Culture minister Abel Prieto told the BBC, "I think that he has always been in Cuba's political life but he is not in the government...He has been very careful about that. His big battle is international affairs."^{[213][214][215][216]}

On April 19, 2011, Castro resigned from the Communist Party central committee,^[217] thus stepping down as leader of the party. Raúl Castro was selected as his successor.^[218]

Public image

By wearing military-style uniforms and leading mass demonstrations, Castro projected an image of a perpetual revolutionary. He was mostly seen in military attire, but his personal tailor, Merel Van 't Wout, convinced him to occasionally change to a business suit.^[219] Castro is often referred to as "Comandante", but is also nicknamed "El Caballo", meaning "The Horse", a label that was first attributed to Cuban entertainer Benny Moré, who on hearing Castro passing in the Havana night with his entourage, shouted out "Here comes the horse!"^[220]

During the revolutionary campaign, fellow rebels knew Castro as "The Giant".^[221] Large throngs of people gathered to cheer at Castro's fiery speeches, which typically lasted for hours. Many details of Castro's private life, particularly involving his family members, are scarce as the media is forbidden to mention them.^[222] Castro's image appears frequently in Cuban stores, classrooms, taxicabs, and national television.^[223] Despite this, Castro has stated that he does not promote a cult of personality.^[224]

Personal life

One of Castro's biographers, the Briton Leycester Coltman (2003), described the Cuban as being "fiercely hard-working, dedicated[,] loyal... generous and magnanimous" but also noted that he could be "vindicative and unforgiving" at times. He went on to note that Castro "always had a keen sense of humour and could laugh at himself" but could equally be "a bad loser" who would act with "ferocious rage if he thought that he was being humiliated."^[225] In her study of the Cold War in the Caribbean, the British historian Alex Von Tunzelmann (2011) commented that "though ruthless, [Castro] was a patriot, a man with a profound sense that it was his mission to save the Cuban people", contrasting him strongly to his Haitian contemporary François Duvalier.^[226]

By his first wife Mirta Díaz-Balart, whom he married on October 11, 1948, Castro has a son named Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart, born on September 1, 1949. Díaz-Balart and Castro were divorced in 1955, and she remarried Emilio Núñez Blanco. After a spell in Madrid, Díaz-Balart reportedly returned to Havana to live with Fidelito and his family.^[227] Fidelito grew up in Cuba; for a time, he ran Cuba's atomic-energy commission before being removed from the post by his father.^[228] Díaz-Balart's nephews are Republican U.S. Congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, vocal critics of the Castro government.^{[citation needed]}

Fidel has five other sons by his second wife, Dalia Soto del Valle: Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis, Alexander "Alex" and Ángel Castro Soto del Valle.^[228]

While Fidel was married to Mirta, he had an affair with Natalia "Naty" Revuelta Clews, born in Havana in 1925 and married to Orlando Fernández, resulting in a daughter named Alina Fernández-Revuelta.^[228] Alina left Cuba in 1993, disguised as a Spanish tourist,^[229] and sought asylum in the United States. She has been a vocal critic of her father's policies.^{[citation needed]} Alina was assisted by Elena Diaz-Verson Amos, wife of AFLAC founder John Amos. Alina lived with Elena in Columbus, Georgia, for several years.

By an unnamed woman he had another son, Jorge Ángel Castro. Fidel has another daughter, Francisca Pupo (born 1953) the result of a one night affair. Pupo and her husband now live in Miami.^[230][231]

His sister Juanita Castro has been living in the United States since the early 1960s. When she went into exile, she said "I cannot longer remain indifferent to what is happening in my country. My brothers Fidel and Raúl have made it an enormous prison surrounded by water. The people are nailed to a cross of torment imposed by international Communism."^[232]

Controversy and criticism

Human rights record

Signs of protest in the 2010 Cuban Day Parade in Union City, New Jersey, a heavily Cuban-American community.

Many observers refer to Castro as a dictator^{[233][234][235][236][237][238]} and his rule was the longest to-date in modern Latin American history.^{[235][236][237][238]}

The Human Rights Watch organization has suggested that Castro constructed a "repressive machinery" which "continues to deprive Cubans of their basic rights".^[239]

Castro's 49-year regime remains one of the most controversial in the history of Latin America. Scholar R J Rummel estimates the casualties of his regime to 73,000, with one study estimating over 119,000 and several others suggesting significantly lower figures.^[240]

Allegations of mismanagement

In their book, Corruption in Cuba, Sergio Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Pérez-López Servando state that Castro "institutionalized" corruption and that "Castro's state-run monopolies, cronyism, and lack of accountability have made Cuba one of the world's most corrupt states".^[241] Servando Gonzalez, in The Secret Fidel Castro, calls Castro a "corrupt tyrant".^[242]

In 1959, according to Gonzalez, Castro established "Fidel's checking account", from which he could draw funds as he pleased. The "Comandante's reserves" were created in 1970, from which Castro allegedly "provided gifts to many of his cronies, both home and abroad". Gonzalez asserts that Comandante's reserves have been linked to counterfeiting business empires and money laundering.^[242]

As early as 1968, a once-close friend of Castro's wrote that Castro had huge accounts in Swiss banks. Castro's secretary was allegedly seen using Zurich banks. Gonzalez wrote that Cuba's paucity of trade with Switzerland contrasts oddly with the National Office of Cuba's relatively large office in Zurich.^[242] Castro has denied having a bank account abroad with even a dollar in it.^[243]

Allegations of wealth

A KGB officer, Alexei Novikov, stated that Castro's personal life, like the lives of the rest of the Communist elite, is "shrouded under an impenetrable veil of secrecy". Among other things, he asserted that Castro has a personal guard of more than 9,700 men and three luxurious yachts.^[242]

In 2005, American business and financial magazine Forbes listed Castro among the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of US$550 million. The estimates, which the magazine admitted were "more art than science",^[244] claimed that the Cuban leader's personal wealth was nearly double that of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, despite anecdotal evidence from diplomats and businessmen that the Cuban leader's personal life was notably austere.^[243] This assessment was drawn by making economic estimates of the net worth of Cuba's state-owned companies, and used the assumption that Castro had personal economic control.^[245] Forbes later increased the estimates to US$900 million, adding rumors of large cash stashes in Switzerland.^[243] The magazine offered no proof of this information,^[244] and according to CBS News, Castro's entry on the rich list was notably brief compared to the amount of information provided on other figures.^[244] Castro, who had considered suing the magazine, responded that the claims were "lies and slander", and that they were part of a US campaign to discredit him.^[243] He declared: "If they can prove that I have a bank account abroad, with US$900m, with US$1m, US$500,000, US$100,000 or US$1 in it, I will resign."^[243] President of Cuba's Central Bank, Francisco Soberón, called the claims a "grotesque slander", asserting that money made from various state owned companies is pumped back into the island's economy, "in sectors including health, education, science, internal security, national defense and solidarity projects with other countries."^[245]

Authored works

Fully or partially by Fidel Castro

• Capitalism in Crisis: Globalization and World Politics Today, Ocean Press, 2000, ISBN 1876175184
• Che: A Memoir, Ocean Press, 2005, ISBN 192088825X
• Cuba at the Crossroads, Ocean Press, 1997, ISBN 187528494X
• Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography, Scribner, 2008, ISBN 1416553282
• Fidel Castro Reader, Ocean Press, 2007, ISBN 1920888888
• Fidel My Early Years, Ocean Press, 2004, ISBN 1920888098
• Fidel & Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism & Liberation Theology, Ocean Press, 2006, ISBN 1920888454
• How Far We Slaves Have Come! South Africa and Cuba in Today's World, by Nelson Mandela & Fidel Castro, Pathfinder Press, 1991, ISBN 087348729X
• Playa Giron: Bay of Pigs : Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas, Pathfinder Press, 2001, ISBN 087348925X
• Political Portraits: Fidel Castro reflects on famous figures in history, Ocean Press, 2008, ISBN 1920888942
• The Declarations of Havana, Verso, 2008, ISBN 1844671569
• The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro, Nation Books, 2007, ISBN 1560259833
• War, Racism and Economic Justice: The Global Ravages of Capitalism, Ocean Press, 2002, ISBN 1876175478

See also

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Academic and Popular Books

Further reading

by Castro

by others

External links

	Cuba portal
	Biography portal
	Communism portal

Find more about Fidel Castro on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource

By Fidel Castro

• Archive of Fidel Castro's speeches in 6 languages
• Fidel Castro History Archive at Marxists Internet Archive.
• Collection of Castro's speeches
• "We Don't Hope for Favors from the Worst of Empires"
• "Where Have All the Bees Gone?"
• "In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan-American Games"
• "Time for an Alliance of Civlizations Against Empire"
• СССР TV: "Fidel Castro meets L.Brezhnev (USSR) (1974)" on Soviet TV portal (in Russian)
• Fidel Castro in His Own Words

Images

• Castro: Early Years (1953–1961) – slideshow by Life magazine
• Fidel Castro: A Revolutionary Life – slideshow by Life magazine
• Fidel Castro: A Life in Pictures – slideshow by BBC News
• Fidel Castro's Five Decades in Power – slideshow by The Washington Post
• Fidel Castro Resigns as President – slideshow by New York Times

About Fidel Castro

• Fidel Castro: From Rebel to El Presidente – timeline by NPR
• Arthur Miller: A Visit With Castro by The Nation, December 24, 2003
• BBC Video: Fidel Castro Visits Boyhood Home of Che Guevara
• New York Times –- Interactive Feature: Three Days With Fidel
• PBS American Experience Interactive site on Fidel Castro with a teacher's guide
• Guide to the Cuban Revolution Collection, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
• Deena Stryker Photographs of Cuba, 1963–1964, Duke University Libraries Digital Collections
• NPR Audio: Cuba's Castro an Inspiration, Not a Role Model by Tom Gjelten, September 15, 2006
• The Guardian: "The Fidel I Think I Know" by Gabriel García Márquez, August 12, 2006
• Washington Post: Fidel Castro Will Always Lead Cuba, Locals Say February 22, 2008