The thorn in the Eagle:
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (American Spanish:
[fiˈðel aleˈxandɾo ˈkastɾo ˈrus] audio (
help·
info); August 13, 1926 – November 25/26, 2016) was a
Cuban politician, and
revolutionary who governed the
Republic of Cuba as
Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as
President from 1976 to 2008.
[1] Politically a
Marxist–Leninist and Cuban
nationalist, he also served as the
First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration Cuba became a
one-party socialist state; industry and business were
nationalized, and
state socialist reforms implemented throughout society.
Born in
Birán as the son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted
leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the
University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against
right-wing governments in the
Dominican Republic and
Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President
Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the
Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the
26th of July Movement, with his brother
Raúl Castro and
Che Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the
Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a
guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the
Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States opposed Castro's government, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by
assassination,
economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the
Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an alliance with the Soviets. In response to U.S. nuclear missiles in Turkey, and perceived U.S. threats against Cuba, Castro allowed the Soviet Union to placed nuclear weapons on Cuba, sparking the
Cuban Missile Crisis—a defining incident of the
Cold War—in 1962.
Adopting a Marxist-Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the
Western Hemisphere. Reforms introducing
central economic planning and expanding
healthcare and
education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of
Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, and sending troops to aid allies in the
Yom Kippur War,
Ogaden War, and
Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the
Non-Aligned Movement from 1979–83 and
Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage and earned its leader great respect in the
developing world. Following the
Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its "
Special Period" and embraced
environmentalist and
anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s he forged alliances in the Latin American "
pink tide"—namely with
Hugo Chávez's Venezuela—and signed Cuba to the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006 he
transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who formally assumed the presidency in 2008.
Castro was decorated with
various international awards, and was lauded as a champion of socialism, anti-imperialism, and
humanitarianism, whose revolutionary regime secured Cuba's independence from
American imperialism. In Latin America, Castro was inspirational for leaders like
Hugo Chavez[2] and
Evo Morales[3] and, in Africa, he was viewed as an inspiration by leaders like
Nelson Mandela.
[4] He was also regarded highly in Asia; the former Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh described Castro as "one of the greatest men of our times".
[5] Conversely, critics in the United States alleged that he was a
dictator whose administration oversaw
human-rights abuses in Cuba.
[6] Through his actions and his writings, he significantly influenced the politics of various individuals and groups across the world.
Love him or hate him, he was a remarkable person.
I wonder how different he would have been had he been allowed to hold the one elective office that he won in something like a free election.