Fidel Castro.

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Fidel Castro.
I

INTRODUCTION

Fidel Castro, believed to be born in 1926, Cuba's head of state from January 1959 until his resignation in February 2008. Fidel Castro claimed power in 1959 following
the Cuban Revolution, an armed revolt that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He became prime minister of Cuba in 1961 and shortly thereafter canceled
elections and suspended Cuba's constitution. Castro continued to rule as prime minister without regard for the 1940 constitution until 1976, when the nation enacted a
new constitution that allowed limited electoral participation by Cuban voters. Cuba's National Assembly elected Castro president of the country in 1976, and he was
subsequently reelected every five years. He resigned in February 2008 due to ill health and was succeeded by his brother Raúl Castro. However, Fidel remained the
head of the Cuban Communist Party.
Castro declared himself a Communist in 1961 and began to transform Cuba into a socialist nation, inaugurating wide-ranging changes in the country's social and
economic systems. He instituted programs that dramatically increased the nation's literacy rate and provided quality healthcare to almost all Cubans.
The socialist nature of Castro's government sent many members of the elite and professional classes into exile. Government seizures of properties and business
holdings, the suspension of elections, the militarization of society, control of the media, and the politicization of education convinced conservatives and moderates to
seek exile in Spain, Mexico, France, and, primarily, the United States, particularly the state of Florida.
During the 1960s through the 1980s, Castro allied himself with the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR); in addition, he supported revolutions of
national liberation in Latin America, Africa, and Asia and became a leader among heads of state in nations that had recently won their freedom from colonial powers.
Castro and his socialist government faced strong opposition from the United States, which formerly had been Cuba's ally and main trading partner. United States
businesses with holdings in Cuba opposed Castro's seizure of their property, and many U.S. politicians saw Castro's socialist policies and alliance with the USSR as a
threat to the security of the United States.

II

CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on a sizable estate near Birán in Oriente Province. He was the third of seven children born to Angel Castro y Argiz, a Spanish
immigrant, and Lina Ruz González, a household servant who later married Angel. Angel Castro was a self-made man whose fortune came from laying track for the sugar
railway and transporting cane in oxcarts. He transported cane by oxcart from sugar fields to nearby processing mills, where it was converted into refined sugar. The
railroad tracks he helped construct connected the sugar refineries to other rail lines in Cuba. Angel valued hard work and insisted that his sons demonstrate thrift and
persistence.
Castro's education began in the local public schools near the neighboring town of Mayarí, where his classmates were the children of laborers. Recognized for his
scholastic talents, Castro was tutored and then enrolled in Santiago de Cuba's La Salle School, which was run by French priests. At school, Castro was unruly and a
fighter. He challenged the authority of the priests and vied for leadership among the students. Because of this behavior, his father sent him to the Dolores Colegio, a
Catholic private school known for its tough discipline and high academic standards. There Castro learned the value of discipline and authority. While attending school in
Santiago de Cubas, Castro witnessed U.S. soldiers' behavior toward Cuban citizens, whom the Americans treated as inferiors, and he developed a strong aversion to
U.S. influence in Cuban politics.
In 1940 Castro enrolled in the prestigious Belen Secondary School in Havana, where he competed with the children of Cuba's elite for academic and social recognition.
At Belen, Castro learned Cuban history and took as his hero José Martí, the father of Cuban independence from Spain. Castro also developed his athletic and oratory
skills during his time at Belen.

III

EARLY POLITICAL CAREER

In 1945 Castro entered the University of Havana Law School, where he became involved in politics. At the university, politics centered around student political gangs,
and Castro took part in the often violent confrontations among these gangs.
Castro's political ideals matured as he committed himself to overthrowing President Ramón Grau San Martín, of the Auténtico Party, who had allowed corruption to grow
in business and politics. Tired of university politics, Castro joined the Party of the Cuban People (the Ortodoxo Party), founded by Eduardo (Eddy) Chibás. The
Ortodoxos publicly exposed government corruption and demanded reform. The party's founding principles included building a strong sense of national identity among
Cubans, opposing the influence of powerful foreign nations in Cuba's affairs, supporting social justice, establishing economic independence for Cuba, and evenly
distributing the nation's wealth through government control of natural and economic resources.
Inspired by these values, Castro involved himself in three important activities. First, in 1947 he joined the Caribbean Legion, a group of political exiles from other
Caribbean nations based in Cuba. With them, he took part in a failed effort to overthrow Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, by launching an invasion
from Cuba.
When the Dominican coup attempt failed, Castro returned to Cuba to focus on his second crusade, the electoral defeat of the candidates of the Auténtico Party.
Campaign activities were punctuated with violence, and amidst the furor, Castro's firebrand speeches and effective political organization brought him early recognition, if
not power, in the Ortodoxo Party.
In April 1948 Castro undertook the third formative activity in his early political career. He attended the Ninth Pan American Union conference, a student conference held
in Bogotá, Colombia. The conference was organized by Argentine president Juan Perón to protest U.S. domination of the western hemisphere. Upon arriving in Bogotá,
Castro and a friend, Rafael del Pino, disrupted the conference by showering astonished delegates with pamphlets condemning U.S. influence in Latin America. A few
days later, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, leader of the Colombian Liberal Party, and a man from whom the student rebels took council, was assassinated. The news of Gaitán's
death rocked Bogotá, and outraged students rioted in the streets.
Castro was later blamed for instigating the uprising, known as the Bogotazo, but he was little more than a spectator. His pamphleteering of the Pan American Union
meeting has been cited as evidence that he was a Communist at that time. In truth, the Bogotazo proved a turning point in the development of Castro's political
thought. Because Gaitán's commitment to reforming the political system through democratic means resulted in his death, Castro concluded that making changes
through the electoral process could not succeed.
When Castro returned to Cuba, he threw himself into the presidential campaign of 1948, which pitted Carlos Prio Socarrás, a seasoned politician and member of the
Auténtico Party, against Eddy Chibás, the leader of the Party of the Cuban People (called the Ortodoxo Party). Castro was cynical about Cuban electoral politics. He
believed that elections were often rigged and that the United States controlled Cuban politicians, regardless of whether they were elected officials or dictators. As a

result, Castro formed a radical branch of the Ortodoxo Party called the Radical Action Orthodox wing. This organization supported Chibás in the 1948 election. Prio
Socarrás won the election, despite Castro's efforts.
After Chibás committed suicide in 1951, Castro believed he should become the leader of the Ortodoxo Party and ran for a seat in the Cuban House of Representatives in
the 1952 election. Before that election could occur, however, General Fulgencio Batista staged a bloodless coup d'etat and established a dictatorship that ended Castro's
chance to attain office legally. Castro's cynicism hardened into rejection of electoral democracy, and he declared himself in favor of armed revolution.

IV

REBEL LEADER

As dissatisfaction with Batista's coup spread, Castro formed one of several underground organizations that plotted to overthrow Batista. Among the anti-Batista groups
contributing to political destabilization were the Auténtico Party's radical wing; Civic Resistance, a coalition of urban resistance groups that carried out acts of sabotage
in the cities; and the National Revolutionary Movement, an anticommunist group that formed within the military. To stop the wave of popular rebellion, President
Fulgencio Batista placed the armed forces on alert and dispatched secret police and informants to identify, torture, and kill organized dissidents.
On July 26, 1953, Castro and his supporters attacked Cuba's second largest military base--the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro, his brother Raúl, and
approximately 150 revolutionaries plotted to overrun the base, which was manned by 1000 trained soldiers. The rebels planned to seize the radio station at the base
and announce the beginning of a guerrilla movement. They also intended to take weapons from the fort to use in their military campaign. Their mission failed badly.
Over half of Castro's band was captured, tortured, or killed. The martyrdom of the youthful revolutionaries had the unexpected effect of drawing attention to their
heroism and generating sympathy for their cause. Castro's guerrilla movement would be called the 26th of July Movement after the date of the assault on the barracks.
Castro and other conspirators survived the attack, but were captured. The prisoners went on trial from August to October of 1953 for conspiracy to overthrow the
Cuban government. At his trial Castro countered the charge by attacking Batista's illegitimate coup in what has become known as his "History Will Absolve Me" speech.
He accused Batista of violating the democratic 1940 Constitution, of using terror and torture to suppress popular will, and of rejecting universal human rights
guarantees. Castro declared that the young rebels stood for a return to democracy as established in the suspended 1940 Constitution, agrarian reform, the recovery of
resources stolen by government officials and their friends, educational reform, profit sharing with laborers, and public housing provisions.
The court's verdict was a foregone conclusion. Castro was found guilty of conspiring to overthrow the Batista government and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Castro served less than two years of his sentence. Prison afforded him time to read political philosophy, classical literature, history, and military strategy. His time in jail
strengthened his will to change Cuba and shaped his ideas about the means of resistance.
In the 1954 national election, Batista ran unopposed because all major parties withdrew their candidates to protest his regime. While Castro was in jail, new militant
operations formed: the Revolutionary Directorate, composed of university students, and the Second National Front of Escambray, composed of militant rural laborers.
Both groups engaged in acts of sabotage, which Batista met with increasing violence. By 1955 Batista felt confident enough of his hold on power to grant a general
amnesty for all political prisoners, including Castro.
In May 1955 Castro left prison. He soon departed for Mexico, where he trained and indoctrinated recruits in the ideals of social revolution. Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an
Argentine Marxist, joined Castro's guerrilla band and added his ideals of an armed struggle based on the support of rural peasants to the movement's ideological mix.
After a year of preparation, Castro decided to take his guerrilla squadron to Cuba to begin a military campaign against Batista. In November 1956, Castro and 81 other
men boarded the ship Granma and set sail for the southeastern coast of Cuba. Their plan was to form a revolutionary force in the Sierra Maestra, and to encourage a
popular revolt. Batista's army met them at their landing at Playa Colorado, and only around a dozen men, including Castro, escaped arrest, torture, or prison.
In the Sierra Maestra, Castro established his military and political leadership. His tactics consisted of attacking small military units in order to capture weapons, gain
territory, and impress the people with the strength of his revolutionary group. The rebels lived among Cuba's rural peasantry who supported them with food,
information, and sometimes shelter. Castro thus learned of the difficulties they faced. He promised that if he were successful, he would redistribute land to those who
worked it, as well as provide free education and decent health care. While fighting in the mountains, the 26th of July Movement was bombed by U.S. planes. Castro's
troops escaped unharmed, but the peasants suffered serious casualties. Castro's resolve to confront U.S. influence in Cuba hardened, and he pledged himself to support
others around the world who were opposed to U.S. influence in their internal affairs.
During this time, Castro was only one of many leaders of the anti-Batista movement, and he was forced to compromise with other rebel leaders. However, he had one
advantage--he had developed a clear ideological position, while other groups focused only on removing Batista.
By mid-1958 Batista's government had lost most of its support in Cuba and abroad. The United States stopped the shipments of arms to the Cuban military, and
Castro's troops fanned out over the island. When guerrilla units led by the 26th of July Movement's Che Guevara attacked the city of Santa Clara in December 1958,
Batista's forces crumbled. On January 1, 1959, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic, leaving Cuba without a leader or a consensus on governing principles.

V

NATIONAL LEADER

Castro stepped into this vacuum, claiming total authority for himself and his movement. His political ideals set out in his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and his
dominant personal charisma overpowered other rebel groups. His rhetoric and youth promised a break with the corrupt past. Millions of Cubans pledged themselves to a
revolutionary process without knowing what exactly that process entailed.

A

Domestic Policy

Castro did not assume the office of president at first, but instead became the head of the Cuban Armed Forces. Yet he brought before the politically moderate cabinet
sweeping reforms. During Castro's first nine months in office, approximately 1500 decrees, laws, and edicts were passed, some of which appropriated business interests
and private properties owned by U.S. citizens and corporations. Among the most important acts were the Agrarian Reform Law and the Urban Reform Law, both passed
in 1959. These laws broke up large property holdings and redistributed them to the poor. Castro became prime minister in February 1959, following the resignation of
Prime Minister Miró Cardona. At this point moderate cabinet ministers and officials began leaving the government. In May 1961 Castro canceled promised elections and
declared the Constitution of 1940 outdated. In December he announced that Cuba would become a socialist nation.
Transforming Cuba into a socialist nation required a reorientation of values. To address this need, Castro and Che Guevara developed the New Man theory, which called
for the development of a new type of citizen who would regard work not as a means of personal enrichment, but as a commitment to social change. This theory held
that Cubans would no longer work for personal profit, but for the good of all people. Income and benefits, such as education and medical services, were to be evenly
distributed. Under the new political structure, government agencies represented people, and political parties were dissolved. The state controlled the press, and
neighborhood watch groups checked for ideological purity. People advanced at work and in government according to their loyalty to Castro. Castro and Guevara also
drew up a plan to export revolution around the world.

Although Castro advanced his political agenda, his economic plans failed. He wanted to diversify the economy, which had been heavily dependent on agricultural
production. Castro devoted the first four years of the revolution to promoting the growth of Cuban industry that produced previously imported goods. However, Cuban
products were impractical and of poor quality. At the same time, traditional agricultural production declined, and sugar output, upon which the economy depended, fell
nearly 50 percent.
In 1965 Castro reversed the economic plan and focused the economy again on agricultural production and the export of a few primary products. The focus on sugar
production took on monumental proportions in 1969 and 1970, when Castro announced the goal of a 10-million ton sugar harvest. Like the earlier industrial plan, the
sugar harvest of 1970 failed to reach its target, drawing in only 8.5 million tons. This failure cost Cuba's ally, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), billions of
dollars in financial aid. After 1970 the Soviets required Cuba to develop five-year and ten-year economic plans and to introduce a professional bureaucracy. The influx of
Soviet financial aid helped the Cuba economy to recover during the 1970s, but it also made Cuba economically dependent on the USSR.
Although Castro had to agree to the USSR's demands for economic planning, he insisted on charting his own course for political developments in Cuba. He deviated from
the centrally controlled Soviet model by allowing some democratic participation in government through the Popular People's Power movement inaugurated in 1976. This
movement allowed voters to elect candidates approved by the Communist Party to serve in local government posts. These local party members in turn elected
representatives to provincial and national assemblies, which would supervise government activities at the regional and national levels. Also in 1976, the newly elected
National Assembly of People's Power created the president of the State Council, which combined the functions of head of government, head of state, and commander of
the armed forces. The assembly elected Castro to fill the post.
From 1975 to 1985, Castro allowed small-scale and individual capitalist enterprise by permitting private farmers to market their excess agricultural produce. In 1986,
however, he reversed himself and again prohibited private sales, on the grounds that such capitalist policies disturbed the even distribution of wealth. Individuals and
government officials who had profited too much from private trade were arrested and fined. Policy reversals such as these sent ripples of discontent throughout the
island.

B

Foreign Policy

Castro's opposition to U.S. influence in Cuba and other parts of the world made conflict between the two nations inevitable. In 1959 American business interests joined
disaffected Cubans in sounding the alarm that Castro was a Communist. Whether Castro was a Marxist-Leninist at this time or before is hard to know, but he did
associate with the People's Socialist Party (PSP) because it offered support and a solid political organization. The PSP also helped Castro establish links with the USSR,
which provided Cuba with a new international ally to counter growing opposition from the United States. Tensions escalated between the United States and Cuba as
Castro began seizing U.S. businesses in Cuba. In 1960 the United States placed a partial trade embargo on Cuba, prohibiting the importation of all items except food
and medical supplies. The United States also recalled its ambassador, broke formal relations, and began arming and training Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba.
On April 17, 1961, approximately 1500 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba. These exiles, who were backed by the United States and
trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to raise a counterrevolution. The invasion failed, and most Cubans rallied behind Castro. The Bay of Pigs
invasion silenced dissenting voices within the island and consolidated Castro's power. It also removed any doubt about the socialist direction of Castro's revolution.
In May 1961 Castro publicly rejected Cuba's 1940 Constitution and its democratic tenets. In November 1961 he declared himself a Marxist-Leninist and made Cuba a
major participant in the Cold War struggle between the United States and its allies and the group of nations led by the USSR. Between 1959 and 1962, approximately
200,000 people who opposed Castro's political leadership emigrated to the United States, Spain, and Mexico; over 80 percent of this first wave of refugees were welleducated professionals (Cuban Americans).
Stunned by the defeat at the Bay of Pigs, the United States deployed Operation Mongoose, an effort to destroy Castro from within Cuba and through military invasion.
Agents working for the U.S. government made a number of unsuccessful attempts to assassinate or discredit Castro. A U.S. invasion of Cuba never materialized, largely
because of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. This crisis developed after Castro secretly accepted Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles with the capacity to destroy
most of the United States. The result was the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the U.S. and Soviet governments nearly went to war over the deployment of nuclear
warheads in Cuba. After three tense weeks of negotiation, the superpowers agreed that the USSR would remove the missiles, while the United States promised never to
invade Cuba. Castro was not consulted about the agreement, which infuriated him, but it did free Cuba from the threat of U.S. military intervention. As a result, Castro
was able to develop the economic and social policies promised by his revolution.
Castro chose international confrontation with the United States as his defining international principle. Confident of Soviet support, Castro allied himself with revolutionary
groups throughout the world. In Africa he sent aid and later soldiers to various nations, beginning with Ghana in 1961, Algeria in 1962, and Angola in 1965. What began
as small military missions to support the socialist Popular Movement of Liberation in Angola (MPLA) escalated into a full-fledged war that the rebels eventually won.
Winning the Angolan conflict resulted in the world's recognition of Cuba as a significant international military power.
Castro also involved Cuba in revolution in the western hemisphere. In 1967, Che Guevara went to Bolivia to initiate another revolution, but the Bolivian army captured
and executed him within the year. In Nicaragua, Castro committed as many as 5000 military advisors, medical technicians, teachers, and agricultural experts to aid the
victorious Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1979 (Nicaraguan Revolution). It is significant that Castro advised the Sandinistas not to follow his example of
antagonizing the United States, and he supported their policies of a mixed economy, democratic government, and international nonalignment. When insurrection began
in El Salvador in 1979, Castro advised the combatants that he would have nothing to do with the struggle unless the militant factions united under a single ideological
front. When that was completed in 1981, Cuba and the USSR shipped some arms to El Salvador's Faribundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), and Castro provided
a haven for revolutionary planners.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Castro saw himself as an important leader of nations seeking independence from the domination of the world's wealthier and more
powerful nations. In 1980 he was the president of the Non-Aligned Nations Association, and he made Cuba the focus of international youth conferences.

C

The Post-Cold War Years

In 1989 two events shook the island and threatened Castro's control. General Ochoa Sánchez, a decorated hero of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the mastermind behind
Cuba's victory in the Angolan civil war, was arrested, convicted, and executed for drug smuggling. Some Cubans believed that Ochoa Sánchez' real crime was his
popularity, his ability to lead a military coup, and his rather moderate criticism of Cuba's economic and political paralysis.
A far more important development was the collapse of the USSR, which left Cuba without its major economic ally. With the United States still enforcing a blockade on
trade with Cuba, the loss of Soviet financial aid and trade spelled certain economic collapse unless capitalist economic reforms occurred. Castro declared a "Special
Period in a Time of Peace," which meant strict rationing, shortages, and required "voluntary" labor. Castro told Cubans that he had no solution for the crisis, but vowed
that he would never surrender to American capitalism.
As the economic crisis deepened in 1992-1993, Castro reluctantly surrendered by allowing foreign investments in specific economic sectors, such as tourism,

biotechnology, and telecommunications. While the economy appeared to diversify, domestic economic scarcity led to an active black market, through which international
products, including American goods, flowed. In 1993 the price of goods increased, and the Cuban peso, which in 1989 had been worth $1.18, fell in value to less than a
penny. To stop spiraling inflation, Castro allowed Cubans to use foreign currency--including U.S. dollars--that could be exchanged on global markets. These decisions
destroyed the social and economic equality that the revolution had established. Cubans with access to U.S. currency--obtained through jobs in the tourism industry or
gifts from relatives overseas--attained a higher standard of living than other Cubans. Between 1989 and 1994 the economy declined by 40 percent, and some Cubans
set out for the United States in rafts, preferring to risk their lives at sea rather than suffer economic misery.
A 1994 outburst in old Havana, the result of frustration, hunger, electrical blackouts, poor transportation, and unemployment, was the only challenge to Castro's hold
on power. The old rebel met the crowd face-to-face and convinced protestors to disband. He told them they could leave Cuba if they wished, and tens of thousands
accepted his offer.
Castro held tenaciously to power in the late 1990s. Ironically, his best ally may have been U.S. laws sponsored by U.S. Senators Robert Toricelli and Jesse Helms and
U.S. Representative Dan Burton. These laws were designed to discourage international trade with Cuba in hopes of bringing down Castro's government. This pressure
caused would-be Cuban dissidents to stand behind a leader whose failures they found less distasteful than the tactics of the United States. As a precaution, however,
Castro amassed rapid deployment troops intended to suppress a popular revolt. Castro's age and health are the only indicators of his departure from Cuba's highest
office.
"I love power, and I am the revolution," said Castro in 1987. The sentiment of that statement was echoed in Castro's unwillingness to plan for his departure from office.
Cuba's constitution provides for an orderly transfer of power following Castro's death or resignation. Whether Cubans will follow this procedure is questionable.
Traditionally, Cuba's leaders have attained office not through constitutional methods, but by exercising personal power and influence. Castro discouraged others from
cultivating this kind of power, yet he trained no obvious contenders for constitutional leadership among future generations of Cubans.
In January 1998, Pope John Paul II visited Cuba. His trip drew enthusiastic crowds, even though Cuba is officially an atheistic nation. As the Pope called for faith,
tolerance, peace, and justice, people chanted "We are not afraid" and "Liberty." Castro affirmed his commitment to peace and justice, and mostly ignored demands for
faith and tolerance. His respect for the Pope and his humility at Mass prompted some to see him as an aging man contemplating his mortality. Others, however, saw
him as a shrewd strategist who benefited from the Pope's condemnation of the U.S. embargo as a violation of human rights.
Hopes for the easing of U.S. sanctions against Cuba raised by the Senate in August 1999 were overshadowed by the Elian Gonzalez affair during the first half of 2000.
Castro led the Cuban response in the legal and political tussle to have the shipwrecked six-year-old boy returned from his exiled family in Miami to his father in Cuba.
Castro condemned the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, although he drew common cause with President Hugo Chávez Frías of Venezuela in criticizing
the launch of military action against Afghanistan and subsequently against Iraq (see U.S.-Iraq War). The Castro government also routinely condemned the detention
facility established by the U.S. military at its base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where it held alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Slowly improving economic conditions
led Castro to reverse many of his previous market-oriented reforms of the early 1990s. In March 2003, in what was one of the largest crackdowns upon opposition
during his rule, 78 dissidents were arrested and imprisoned following show trials.
Castro suffered a number of high-profile health scares. In 2004 he broke his knee and fractured his arm in a fall during a televised public speech. In August 2006 he
"temporarily" handed over power to his brother, defense minister Raúl Castro, after an operation to stop intestinal bleeding. In February 2008 Fidel announced his
resignation as president, saying that he could no longer continue to perform his duties with his ailing health. The National Assembly elected Raúl as president the same
month, although Fidel remained the head of the Cuban Communist Party.

Contributed By:
K. Lynn Stoner
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