Fidel Castro

President of Cuba (1959–2008)

• Born: August 13, 1926 or 1927
• Birthplace: Birán, Cuba
• Died: November 25, 2016

Castro led a successful revolutionary struggle against the Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, a strong ally of the wealthy elite and the United States in the late 1950s. The revolutionary leader subsequently implemented Latin America’s third social revolution of the twentieth century and transformed Cuba into the first Communist state in the Western Hemisphere, in defiance of the United States.

Early Life

Fidel Castro was born on a large cattle estate near the village of Birán in Cuba’s Oriente Province. Castro was the third of seven children of a prosperous Spanish immigrant landowner. Between 1941 and 1945, Castro completed his secondary education at the Colegio Belén, a prestigious Jesuit (Roman Catholic) institution in Havana. Castro was a natural athlete and excelled in many sports, especially basketball and baseball, which he played with near professional ability.

Castro enrolled in the University of Havana’s Law Faculty in 1945. He became a student activist in a frequently violent political setting on campus. He joined one of the rival student political groups, became known for his speaking talent, and occasionally expressed nationalist and anti-imperialist sentiments while condemning the exploitation of the poor by the rich.

As a university student, Castro was involved in two international incidents—first, an aborted attempt in 1947 to overthrow the Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo, and then, in 1948, political disorder following the assassination of a prominent Colombian politician in Bogotá, where Castro was attending an anti-imperialist student congress. In spite of these interruptions, Castro was able to graduate in 1950 with a doctor of laws degree.

Castro began his career as an attorney who litigated on behalf of underprivileged clients. He also became active in the Ortodoxo Party, which championed reform and crusaded against corruption. Most presidential regimes in Cuba had succumbed to graft and gangsterism, frustrating popular sentiment in favor of economic nationalist policies and profound social reform. The young attorney was selected to run as an Ortodoxo candidate for congress in the general elections scheduled for June 1952.

Life’s Work

Events soon propelled Castro into a revolutionary career. On March 10, 1952, former president and political strongman Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar seized power in a coup and canceled the elections. When it became clear that peaceful tactics could not dislodge Batista, Castro and his younger brother, Raúl Castro, organized an armed conspiracy. On July 26, 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada military barracks in Santiago, hoping to set off a general uprising. The effort ended in disaster, as more than one hundred fighters were killed in the clash and the reprisals that ensued. Castro was arrested and then tried. At his trial, the young rebel delivered a five-hour address in defense of his actions, summoning the revolutionary heritage of the Cuban patriot José Martí in a speech called "History Will Absolve Me." The court sentenced Castro to fifteen years in prison, but he was released in May 1955 through a general political amnesty.

In July, Castro departed for Mexico to organize a new armed effort to topple Batista. Castro broke all ties with traditional political parties and called his new independent organization the July 26 Movement. Joining the rebel leader abroad were Raúl, Cuban political refugees that included survivors of the failed Moncada attack, and an Argentine-born physician, Che Guevara. After a period of secret military training, Castro’s force of eighty-two men sailed at the end of November 1956 from the Yucatan coast for Cuba in an overloaded old yacht called the Granma. On December 2 the small invading force landed, and it was soon nearly wiped out by a Cuban army unit. Twelve survivors reached safety in the nearby Sierra Maestra. Eventually, Castro’s tiny force received the support of peasants and was bolstered by recruits from the movement’s urban organization.

Publicity from interviews and news of rebel successes made Castro the focus of the popular resistance in Cuba. Moderate middle-class opposition groups signed an accord with the rebel leader on his terms in April 1958. Shortly thereafter, the Cuban Communists, who had previously criticized Castro’s tactics, secretly agreed to support him. Meanwhile, Batista’s severe repression had alienated his government. The dictator’s large but ineffective army failed in its campaigns to eliminate the guerrillas. Castro’s Rebel Armed Forces, numbering fewer than one thousand, assumed the offensive in the summer of 1958, and the dictatorship collapsed as Batista fled Cuba on New Year’s Day of 1959, completing the Cuban Revolution. Now the most popular figure in Cuba and in control of the armed forces, Castro gradually pushed aside his moderate middle-class allies in the new government, who objected to his sweeping agrarian reform proposal and the growing influence of the Communists in the revolutionary process.

After mid-1959, the government consisted solely of members of Castro’s youthful July 26 Movement, members of revolutionary student organizations, and veteran Communist politicians. As Cuba’s prime minister, Castro sought a radical restructuring of Cuban society on behalf of the rural and urban lower classes and a diversified economy free from foreign dominance and dependency on sugar exports. The question of whether Castro held but concealed Marxist and Communist views during the struggle against Batista remained a matter of controversy and conjecture. In any event, the radical nationalist and socioeconomic goals of Castro’s revolutionary government facilitated a working alliance with the Cuban Communists.

United States-Cuban relations deteriorated steadily over the next two years. Castro reacted to the hostility of Washington, DC, to his regime’s orientation by nationalizing foreign-owned firms and seeking ever closer ties with Communist bloc countries. The United States severed relations with Havana in January 1960, enacting an embargo against Cuba, while the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plotted and made thwarted attempts to assassinate the Cuban leader and organized an unsuccessful invasion by anti-Castro exiles in April 1961. Strengthened by this victory, Castro openly labeled his revolution socialist. Then, in an effort to secure Soviet economic and military commitment to his revolution, the Cuban prime minister declared himself a Marxist-Leninist. US influence, once a dominant force in Cuba’s economic, cultural, and political life, disappeared as Castro aligned his country with Eastern bloc nations. Many Cubans at odds with Castro's government fled to Florida as refugees, establishing an exile community that strongly disapproved of Communism.

Castro established a one-party state, amalgamating his movement and its political allies into a Marxist-Leninist party. US–Soviet Cold War tension came to the brink of an unthinkable nuclear confrontation in late 1962, as the United States discovered Russian missiles in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis, as it came to be called, was averted by a last-minute Soviet retreat as well as secret compromises and pledges by both parties.

Castro displayed a flamboyant, personal style of leadership. The Cuban head of state, simply referred to as Fidel by most Cubans, showed charisma and machismo, which was valued in Latin American political culture. He also wore a military uniform in public to reinforce his revolutionary image. He was charming in his personal contacts with Cubans, mass audiences, and foreign visitors to Cuba. He frequently toured the island and dealt directly with his people and their problems. Until he faced health problems in 2006, the Cuban leader made many public speeches on revolutionary anniversaries to audiences that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Although his speeches sometimes lasted many hours, Castro established a close rapport with listeners and mesmerized crowds. He also used television to convey his messages and appeals to the Cuban public. These political talents and qualities enabled the Cuban leader to retain the support of many of Cuba’s more than eleven million inhabitants, despite his regime’s authoritarian nature and lagging economic performance.

The balance sheet of Castro’s accomplishments presents a mixed record. The regime virtually eliminated illiteracy, raised the living standards of rural laborers, and brought better health, educational benefits, and opportunities for social advancement to the people of Cuba. The nation’s literacy rate of over 95 percent and its doctor-to-patient ratio quickly became among the highest in Latin America, and its infant mortality rate declined greatly. The country also made strides toward ending race and sex discrimination. In addition, Cuba became more prominent on the world scene. Castro sponsored international conferences and spoke out frequently on issues of concern to developing world nations. In 2006 he became the secretary-general of the Non-Aligned Movement, a position he held until 2008.

With Cuba’s higher educational system turning out larger numbers of physicians and engineers than its economy could absorb, Castro’s government dispatched its surplus of Cuban medical personnel, teachers, and technicians to many different countries to serve those countries at no cost to them. In the mid-1970s, Havana provided direct military aid to Marxist regimes in Ethiopia and Angola. Despite persistent US efforts to isolate the Castro regime and cripple it through an economic blockade, Cuba noticeably increased its cultural, economic, and political contacts in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The success of its athletes at the international level and its cultural and educational interchanges were notable for such a small country.

By the early twenty-first century, Castro’s Cuba had established diplomatic relations with more than 150 nations. The small island nation’s heightened international profile, along with Castro’s constant assertion of Cuban sovereignty and independence in the face of US hostility, was generally popular with ordinary Cubans, whose strong sense of nationalism stemmed from the neighboring superpower’s past dominating role in the country’s affairs.

Castro, however, did not succeed in achieving his original economic goals for Cuba. At an early date, industrialization efforts and attempts to diversify agricultural production failed and were set aside on Soviet advice in favor of renewed dependency on sugar exports. Production goals frequently fell short, and Cuba’s economy became dependent on Soviet subsidies and technical aid. Cubans faced shortages of consumer items and often endured food rationing. Furthermore, the Communist Party held a tight monopoly on power. Although Castro has been a popular figure to many, his government’s suppression of public and organized dissent, persecution and jailing of opponents, press censorship, curbs on artistic freedoms, and economic privations led to significant numbers of Cubans leaving their homeland as exiles year after year.

The collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union—Cuba’s chief international benefactor—dealt a serious psychological, political, and economic blow to Castro’s regime. Cuba’s economy depended heavily on Soviet subsidies, including vital petroleum supplies and other help that amounted to four billion dollars a year. The economy immediately contracted by 35 percent. Fuel shortages crippled transportation and power transmission. Scarcities also affected food and water supplies, making daily life a struggle. To deal with this setback and crisis, Castro and his top officials, including his brother, Raúl, implemented stringent economic measures and permitted a modest degree of economic liberalization. The regime allowed for small private businesses and farmers’ markets. State farms became collectively owned cooperatives. Capitalist accounting and business practices were now implemented in state enterprises. Other reform measures included the adoption of a more accommodating attitude toward religion; the Cuban government reinstituted Christmas as a recognized holiday, allowed practicing Roman Catholics to join the Communist Party of Cuba, and hosted an official visit by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

These measures brought Cuba some much-needed foreign aid. Capital from Europe, Canada, other Latin American countries, China, and Israel revitalized various sectors of the economy, allowing the government to provide educational and social services. Income from tourism increased as well. Another fortunate development for Castro’s regime was a pronounced leftist political trend in much of Latin America. Openly pro-Castro leaders took power via elections in Venezuela and Bolivia. Venezuela’s head of state from 1999 to 2013, Hugo Chavez, used his country’s petroleum riches to benefit Cuba with an annual subsidy that helped Cuba meet its energy needs and spur economic growth.

Finally, beginning in the late 1990s, several incidents brought to the fore the burning issues of succession to Castro’s long-term rule and the future of the radical revolutionary changes he implemented. On July 31, 2006, a serious health problem, leading to major digestive-tract surgery, prompted Castro to delegate his authority to his younger brother, Raúl, who was then serving as vice president. The Cuban government denied rumors that Castro had terminal cancer, and videotapes were released to the media in the period after his surgeries, which indicated a gradual but steady improvement in his condition. Nevertheless, during the lengthy recuperation period most Cubans seemed to adapt to life without Castro’s leadership. Castro resigned as Cuba’s president on February 24, 2008, and was succeeded by Raúl.

Following his resignation, Castro remained an influential figure in Cuba and abroad. In addition to delivering occasional talks and writing newspaper columns, Castro spoke out against nuclear proliferation and cautioned countries such as the United States, Iran, and North Korea against using such weapons. With his resignation of the presidency and the election of US president Barack Obama, relations between Cuba and the United States began to thaw significantly, as Raúl was seen as pragmatic and willing to negotiate even as he refused to change important elements of his older brother's policies. Finally, in 2015, the United States and Cuba renewed diplomatic relations after more than fifty years and Cuba was removed from the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism. However, while some financial and travel restrictions were lifted, the US economic embargo remained in place as of early 2016, though Obama lobbied for its end. In September 2015, Castro was visited by Pope Francis, who stopped in Cuba on his way to the United States, another sign of Castro's continued global status. During Obama's historic visit to Cuba in March 2016, Castro did not entertain him, indicating the Cuban leader's ongoing suspicion of US intentions.

On November 25, 2016, Fidel Castro died at the age of ninety, as announced by the Cuban state television network. No cause of death was immediately given, though he had been in ill health for years and had even mentioned his likely impending death in patriotic speeches, calling on Cubans to carry on his legacy. His decades in power made him the second-longest serving national leader of the age, after Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. Castro's death was met with days of official mourning in Cuba, and the Cuban government soon enacted a ban on naming any monuments after the former president, adhering to Castro's alleged wish to prevent a cult of personality from developing after his death. International news outlets, governments, individuals and organizations around the world acknowledged his immense influence on global affairs. Some world leaders focused on recognizing the positive aspects of Castro's regime and expressed varying degrees of admiration for the Cuban leader. Others, including some conservative US leaders, rejected such interpretations and continued to label Castro a dictator or even a murderer. Many groups that had long opposed Castro, including some Cuban Americans and Cuban exiles in the United States, celebrated his death as the end of a hated tyrant, proof of his enduring controversial image.

Significance

Castro made himself the central factor in contemporary Cuban history and vigorously asserted his presence on the international scene. Twentieth-century Latin America witnessed three significant social revolutions: the Mexican Revolution (1910–40), Bolivian Revolution (1952–64), and Cuban Revolution (1956–59). Castro personally directed his revolutionary movement to victory over the Batista dictatorship against great odds. In spite of Cuba’s vulnerable geographic location within the sphere of interest of the United States, the Cuban leader founded the first Communist state in the Western Hemisphere and survived US attempts to isolate, assassinate, or topple him. Furthermore, through limited compromises, flexibility, and some fortuitous circumstances, the regime also survived the serious consequences resulting from the fall of its heretofore chief international supporter, the Soviet Union.

Among contemporary world leaders, Castro was one of the better known. Few heads of state held power longer than the Cuban leader. Although his small Caribbean nation’s influence in world affairs was limited, Castro’s status was that of an important although controversial world figure and statesman. Even after stepping down from the presidency, he retained great input on policy decisions. In many ways, his successor and brother Raúl Castro simply maintained the essence of Cuba’s socialist revolution and the political and economic system built by the elder Castro.

Scholars remain divided on the issue of whether Castro’s demise will lead eventually to the fall or a continuation of his Communist system in one form or another. In any case, Castro left his mark as a world statesman, revolutionary leader, and long-serving head of state revered by some and hated by others.

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