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| Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba as a result of the Cuban Revolution |
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Spanish: [fiˈðel ˈkastro]; 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.
Born the illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in armed 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.
In 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban revolution, with Cuba becoming a one-party state under Communist Party governance. Ideologically-based 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 foreign revolutionary socialist groups in the hope of toppling world capitalism, sending Cuban troops to fight in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War and Angolan Civil War. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its economic "Special Period", before taking the country into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in 2006 and forging alliances with other nations in the Latin American Pink Tide. Amid failing health, in 2006 he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who assumed full presidency in 2008.
Castro is a controversial and divisive world figure, lauded as a champion of anti-imperialism, humanitarianism, socialism and environmentalism by his supporters, but considered by 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 Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa and Daniel Ortega.
Childhood and Education
Castro's father, Ángel Castro y Argiz (1875–1956) was born to a poor peasant family in Galicia, Northwest Spain. A farm laborer, in 1895 he was conscripted into the Spanish Army to fight in the Cuban War of Independence and the ensuing Spanish-American War of 1898, in which the U.S. seized control of Cuba. In 1902, the Republic of Cuba was proclaimed, however it remained economically and politically dominated by the U.S. For a time, Cuba enjoyed economic growth, and Ángel migrated there in search of employment.[2] After various jobs, he set up business growing sugar cane at Las Manacas farm in Birán, near Mayarí, Oriente Province.[3] Ángel took a wife in 1911, María Luisa Argota Reyes, with whom he had five children before separating. He then began a relationship with Lina Ruz González (1903–1963), a household servant of Canarian descent who was twenty-seven years his junior; she bore him three sons and four daughters, legally marrying in 1943.[4]
Castro was Lina's third child, born out of wedlock at Ángel's farm on August 13, 1926. Because of the stigma of illegitimacy, he was given his mother's surname of Ruz rather than his father's name.[5] Although Ángel's business ventures prospered, he ensured that Fidel grew up alongside the children of the farm's workforce, many of whom were Haitian economic migrants of African descent.[6] This experience, Castro later related, prevented him from absorbing "bourgeois culture" at an early age.[7] Aged six, Castro, along with his elder siblings Ramón and Angela, was sent to live with their teacher in Santiago de Cuba, dwelling in cramped conditions and relative poverty, often failing to have enough to eat because of their tutor's poor economic situation.[8] Aged eight, Castro was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, although later became an atheist.[9] Being baptized enabled Castro to attend the La Salle boarding school in Santiago, where he regularly misbehaved, and so was sent to the privately funded, Jesuit-run Dolores School in Santiago.[10] In 1945 he transferred to the more prestigious Jesuit-run El Colegio de Belén in Havana.[11] Although Castro took an interest in history, geography and debating at Belén, he did not excel academically, instead devoting much of his time to playing sport.[12]
The Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962
Soviet Premier Khrushchev believed that the USSR was vulnerable to attack from the U.S. and its NATO allies, who were militarily superior and who had nuclear weapons in Western Europe and Turkey, within striking distance of the USSR. He developed a plan to alter the balance of power by placing Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba, from where they could target the U.S.[200] Khrushchev approached Castro with this idea, and while the Cuban leader felt conflicted, he ultimately agreed, believing that it would guarantee Soviet protection of Cuba and enhance the power of the socialist camp.[201] In July 1962, Raúl Castro traveled to Moscow to work out the specifics.[202] The operation was undertaken in strict secrecy, with only the Castro brothers, Guevara, President Dorticós and security chief Ramiro Valdés knowing the full picture.[202] It was agreed to deploy Soviet R-12 MRBMs on Cuban soil, all of which had the capacity to fire nuclear warheads at all of the U.S.' major cities. 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. Castro hit back at Kennedy, insisting that Cuba had a right to defend itself from foreign aggression.[203][204]
Castro privately urged Khrushchev to heighten tensions by threatening a nuclear strike on the U.S. should Cuba be attacked, but Khrushchev was desperate to avoid nuclear war.[205][206] Negotiations took place between Kennedy and Khrushchev, with Castro having no involvement. Ultimately, 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.[207] After learning of the deal, Castro was furious, believing that Khrushchev had betrayed him and given in to U.S. demands.[208][209] Depressed, he lost his appetite and became ill.[210] Proposing a five-point plan, Castro demanded that the U.S. end its embargo, put a stop to its support for dissidents, cease its support for militant attacks on Cuba, stop violating Cuban air space and territorial waters and withdrawing from the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Putting forward these demands to the visiting Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Burmese U Thant, the U.S. ignored his demands, and in turn Castro refused to allow a U.N. inspection team onto Cuba.[211]
Furthering Socialism: 1963–1970
In February 1963, Castro received a personal letter from Khrushchev, in which the Soviet Premier had emotionally set out his reasons for coming to an agreement with the U.S. government and in which he invited Castro to come and visit the USSR. Deeply touched by the letter, Castro set aside his resentment and traveled to the country in April, ultimately staying for five weeks. Visiting 14 cities, he gave speeches and met with locals, addressing a rally in Red Square and watching the May Day parade from the wall of the Kremlin. During his visit, he was also awarded both an honourary doctorate from Moscow State University as well as the Order of Lenin, becoming the first foreigner to receive the latter.[212][213]
Castro returned from the Soviet Union with new ideas for furthering socialism in Cuba. Inspired by the Soviet daily newspaper, Pravda, Castro oversaw the amalgamation of Cuba's two authorized newspapers, Hoy and Revolución, into a new publication, Granma, named after the boat upon which Castro had arrived in Cuba with his revolutionaries in 1956.[214] He also oversaw largescale investment in Cuban sports programmes, allowing the country to become one of Latin America's most successful sporting nations.[215] On the 10th anniversary of Castro's attack on the Moncada Barracks, held in 1963, the Cuban leader gave a speech in the Plaza de la Revolución attended by his mother, who would die 11 days later. Her death was reported on in the Cuban press, but it would prove the last time that they were permitted to mention Castro's private life, who began to increasingly value his privacy.[216] Domestically, Castro agreed to allow anyone wishing to leave Cuba – with the exception of males aged between 15 and 26 – to do so. This helped rid the government of many of its opponents, but thousands took up the government's offer, many more than Castro had wanted.[217] In 1964, Castro undertook a second, shorter trip to Moscow, officially to sign a new five-year sugar trade agreement, but also to discuss the ramifications of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[218] In October 1965, the governing Integrated Revolutionary Organizations officially changed its name to the Cuban Communist Party, and published the membership of its Central Committee.[217]
Family and friends
Many details of Castro's private life, particularly involving his family members, are scarce as the state media is forbidden to mention them.[383] Castro's biographer Robert E. Quirk noted that throughout his life, the Cuban leader had been "unable to form a lasting sexual relationship with any female."[384] 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.[385] Fidelito grew up in Cuba; for a time, he ran Cuba's atomic-energy commission before being removed from the post by his father.[386]
Fidel has five other sons by his second wife, Dalia Soto del Valle: Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis, Alexander "Alex" and Ángel Castro Soto del Valle.[386] 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.[386] Alina left Cuba in 1993, disguised as a Spanish tourist,[387] and sought asylum in the United States. She has been critical of her father's policies.[388] 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.[389][390] Castro often engaged in one night stands with women.[391]
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."[392]
While in power, Castro's two closest male friends were the former Mayor of Havana Pepin Naranjo and his own personal physician, René Vallejo.[393] From 1980 until his death in 1995, Naranjo headed Castro's team of advisers.[394] He also had a deep friendship with fellow revolutionary Celia Sanchez, who accompanied him almost everywhere during the 1960s, and controlled almost all access to the leader.[395] During the mid to late 1960s, Vallejo and Sanchez became his two closest companions.[396] Vallejo, who served as his personal physician since 1958,[396] died in 1969.[396] Sanchez died in 1982.[396] Castro was also good friends with the Colombian poet Gabriel García Márquez
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