Fidel Castro

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Fidel Castro bigraphy, stories - President of Cuba

Fidel Castro : biography

August 13, 1926 –

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz ( born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who was Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the Commander in Chief of the country’s armed forces from 1959 to 2008, and as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state; industry and businesses were nationalized, and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Internationally, Castro was the Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement, from 1979 to 1983 and from 2006 to 2008.

The illegitimate 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 the United States-backed military junta of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, and served a year’s imprisonment in 1953 after a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks. On release he traveled to Mexico, where he formed a revolutionary group with his brother Raúl and friend Che Guevara, the 26th of July Movement. Returning to Cuba, Castro led the Cuban Revolution which ousted Batista in 1959, and brought his own assumption of military and political power. Alarmed by his revolutionary credentials and friendly relations with the Soviet Union, the U.S. governments of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy unsuccessfully attempted to remove him, by economic blockade, assassination and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an economic and military alliance with the Soviets, and allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Castro is a controversial and divisive world figure, lauded as a champion of anti-imperialism, humanitarianism, socialism and environmentalism by his supporters, but viewed as a dictator who has overseen multiple human rights abuses by his critics. Through his actions and his writings he has significantly influenced the politics of various individuals and groups across the world, including Hugo Chavez, Nelson Mandela, and Daniel Ortega.

Presidency

Foreign wars and NAM Presidency: 1975–1979

Considering Africa "the weakest link in the imperialist chain", in November 1975 Castro ordered 230 military advisors into Southern Africa to aid the Marxist MPLA in the Angolan Civil War. When the U.S. and South Africa stepped up their support of the opposition FLNA and UNITA, Castro ordered a further 18,000 troops to Angola, playing a major role in forcing a South African retreat.Bourne 1986. p. 281, 284–287.Coltman 2003. pp. 242–243. Traveling to Angola, Castro celebrated with President Agostinho Neto, Guinea’s Sékou Touré and Guinea-Bissaun President Luís Cabral, agreeing to support the Mozambique’s communist government against RENAMO in the Mozambique Civil War.Coltman 2003. p. 243. Heading north in February, Castro visited Algeria and Libya, spending ten days with Gadaffi before attending talks with the Marxist government of South Yemen. Proceeding to Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola, he was greeted by crowds as a hero for Cuba’s role in opposing apartheid South Africa.Coltman 2003. pp. 243–244.

In 1977 the Ogaden War broke out as Somalia invaded Ethiopia; although a former ally of Somali President Siad Barre, Castro had warned him against such action, and Cuba sided with Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Marxist government of Ethiopia, sending troops under the command of General Arnaldo Ochoa to aid the overwhelmed Ethiopian army. Forcing back the Somalis, Mengistu ordered the Ethiopians to suppress the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, a measure Castro refused to support.Coltman 2003. p. 245.Bourne 1986. pp. 291–292. Castro extended support to Latin American revolutionary movements, namely the Sandinista National Liberation Front in overthrowing the Nicaraguan rightist government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in July 1979.Coltman 2003. p. 249. Castro’s critics accused the government of wasting Cuban lives in these military endeavors; the anti-Castro Carthage Foundation-funded Center for a Free Cuba claims that an estimated 14,000 Cubans were killed in foreign Cuban military actions.