Fidel Castro
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Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (b. 13 August 1926, in Oriente, Cuba) is a Marxist leader, cigar fan and a nice fella[citation needed]. He was Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 until his official resignation in February 2008, being Cuba's undisputed leader for almost fifty years.
Due to illness his duties are now being carried out by his brother Raúl Castro, who is notable for having been known by nobody until that point. He announced he would not accept reelection to the posts of president and commander in chief.
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[edit] Life
Castro's father was a sugar plantation owner named Angel Castro, and his mother was Lina Ruz (his father's maid). The young Fidel progressed through Catholic schools to study law at Havana University in 1945. There, his involvement in student politics included a 1947 attempt to overthrow the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, and, in 1948, membership of the newly-formed nationalist Ortodox Party. That same year he married Mirta Diaz Balart, and had a son in 1949, Fidel Casro Diaz-Balart, currently head of Cuba's atomic energy bureau.
Castro divorced from Díaz-Balart in 1954. In 1956, he had an illegitimate daughter named Alina Fernández, with Natalia Revuelta.
After graduating in 1950, Castro entered law practice specializing in poor people's cases. In 1953 he was involved in a first unsuccessful attempt to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista. Imprisoned, then exiled to Mexico, Castro returned to Cuba in 1956 to organize the revolution.
[edit] Revolution and dictatorship
Castro joined forces with famed guerilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara and after a lengthy campaign, toppled Batista on January 1st, 1959.
The CIA has tried and failed to assassinate him multiple[1] times.
Castro set up a Communist regime with himself as maximum leader, transformed Cuba into a one party communist state and ruled the country as dictator until 2006, when he unofficially stepped aside due to ill health. His brother Raúl is the current nominal leader of Cuba, but since Castro's physical condition has been a very closely-held secret, it is largely unknown outside Cuba whether Fidel retains power behind the scenes or how much he wields.
In 1962, the U.S. imposed an economic embargo on Cuba. Later, Castro was excommunicated by Pope John XXIII, but he didn't care. With full support from the now-defunct Soviet Union, Castro had started deep transformations in the island. Public education (if more or less as conceived by Orwell in 1984), sports and particularly public health, were much developed by the regime.
However, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuba's economy plunged, with massive power, gas and water outages. Today, a Cuban citizen has the right to only four eggs per month, among other scarcities. Naturally, neither Castro nor his acolytes have to suffer such banalities.
[edit] Death
His death has been eagerly anticipated, and even encouraged (as noted above), for over fifty years.
