[436] Castro claimed that he quit around 1985 during an anti-smoking campaign promoted by the Communist Party. The most likely candidate, former rural guardsman Felipe Miraval, never denied nor confirmed the possibility. [330] In 2001, Castro attended the Conference Against Racism in South Africa at which he lectured on the global spread of racial stereotypes through US film. [490] The London Observer stated that he proved to be "as divisive in death as he was in life", and that the only thing that his "enemies and admirers" agreed upon was that he was "a towering figure" who "transformed a small Caribbean island into a major force in world affairs". I would honestly love to revolutionize this country from one end to the other! He also had two homes in Matanzas, one in Ciego de Avila, a horse ranch Hacienda San Cayetano in Camaguey along with another house in a vacation compound for the Politburo nearby, Casa Guardalavaca in Holguin, and two residences in Santiago de Cuba (One of which is shared with Ramiro Valdes). [297] The Cuban troops played a decisive role in the relief of Cuito Cuanavale, breaking the siege in March 1988, which led to the withdrawal of most of the South African troops from Angola. ", "Fidel Castro's Cuba full of his offspring after years of womanising by El Commandante", "Las dispares vidas de los otros hijos de Fidel Castro", "Cuba's first family not immune to political rift", "Fidel Castro: leader proves as divisive in death as he was in life", "Fidel Castro: As Divisive in Death as he was in Life", "The international dimension of authoritarian regime legitimation: insights from the Cuban case", "Social Revolution and Authoritarian Durability", "The Absolution of History: Uses of the Past in Castro's Cuba", "Communicating authoritarian elite cohesion", "Still Stuck on Castro - How the press handled a tyrant's farewell", "Donald Trump calls Fidel Castro 'brutal dictator', "Trump and Obama offer divergent responses to death of Fidel Castro", "Fidel Castro: A progressive but deeply flawed leader", "Cuba: Fidel Castro's Abusive Machinery Remains Intact", "O Canada: Trudeau's Castro tribute raises eyebrows", "Czech, Slovak MEPs 'shocked' by EU comments on Castro", "Castro ends state-visit to South Africa", "Cuba bans naming monuments after Fidel Castro", "A Deeper Shade of Green: The Evolution of Cuban Environmental Law and Policy", "Protecting Cuba's Environment: Efforts to Design and Implement Effective Environmental Laws and Policies in Cuba", Fidel Castro: From Rebel to El Presidente, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fidel_Castro&oldid=1152147438. [318] Fearing that dissident groups would invade, the government organized the "War of All the People" defence strategy, planning a widespread guerrilla warfare campaign, and the unemployed were given jobs building a network of bunkers and tunnels across the country.[319]. The theory is straightforward enough. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide"namely with Hugo Chvez's Venezuelaand formed the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. [96] They began launching raids on small army posts to obtain weaponry, and in January 1957 they overran the outpost at La Plata, treating any soldiers that they wounded but executing Chicho Osorio, the local mayoral (land company overseer), who was despised by the local peasants and who boasted of killing one of Castro's rebels. [321], Castro's government diversified its economy into biotechnology and tourism, the latter outstripping Cuba's sugar industry as its primary source of revenue in 1995. Many older members of government were to be retired and replaced by their younger counterparts. Castro would step down as head of government, to be replaced by the much younger Carlos Lage, although Castro would remain the head of the Communist Party and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. [429] In private, however, Castro hated such idolization campaigns and believed that he had intellectual ascendancy over leaders who engaged in such behaviour, such as his friend Kim Il-sung of North Korea whose cult of personality he considered excessive, outlandish and unreasonable. [2] His father, ngel Castro y Argiz, a veteran of the SpanishAmerican War,[3] was a migrant to Cuba from Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. Peter Bourne, Castro biographer, 1986[488], One of the most controversial political leaders of his era,[489] Castro both inspired and dismayed people around the world during his lifetime. [251] Leaving Algiers, Castro visited Iraq and North Vietnam. Without a doubt, he was one of the most recognizable people in the world in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. [46], During his campaign, Castro met with General Fulgencio Batista, the former president who had returned to politics with the Unitary Action Party. [369], In December 2014, Castro was awarded the Chinese Confucius Peace Prize for seeking peaceful solutions to his nation's conflict with the US and for his post-retirement efforts to prevent nuclear war. [431] At over 6feet 3inches (1.91m) tall with a few inches added from his combat boots, Castro usually towered over most foreign leaders he met with, giving him a dominating presence in any room or photo that was taken, which he used to his advantage (for comparison, Abraham Lincoln and Charles de Gaulle, both well known for their tall heights, stood at 6'4" and 6'5", respectively). [115] By this time the great majority of Cuban people had turned against the Batista regime. Close by is a second two-story building used to house the bodyguards and the domestic staff. Omissions? Severino Castro Apastillado. Harvard researcher unearths the life of young Fidel Castro Fidel Castro professed to be Marxist after assuming leadership of Cuba. [30] That year, he married Mirta Daz Balart, a student from a wealthy family, through whom he was exposed to the lifestyle of the Cuban elite. [298] Tensions were increased with the Cubans advancing close to the border of Namibia, which led to warnings from the South African government that they considered this an extremely unfriendly act, causing South Africa to mobilize and call up its reserves. Even prior to that, the staunchly anti-communist U.S. government had suspicions about Castros political leanings based on the content of his fiery orationsuspicions that would be confirmed in the first year of the new Cuba, as it aligned itself more and more with the Soviet Union. Around 1990, he wrote software that allowed Russian programs to be run on Japanese ones; the product was purchased by, Antonio Castro Del Valle, born in 1971. Wayne S. Smith, US Interests Section in Havana Chief from 1979 to 1982, in 2007[399], Juan Reynaldo Snchez, Castro's former bodyguard, detailed much of his personal and private life in his book The Double Life of Fidel Castro. Galician, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic): . [375] In late October 2016, Castro met with the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who became one of the last foreign leaders to meet him. German and Italian women in the 1950s and . [208][209] Castro was left out of the negotiations, in which Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a US commitment not to invade Cuba and an understanding that the US would remove their MRBMs from Turkey and Italy. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Yeltsin despised Castro and developed links with the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation. State media frequently published details of his attempts to breed cows with increased milk yields. Crowds regularly shouted "Fidel! Most analysts saw his remarks as offering support for Rals introduction of economic reforms that included a massive layoff of government employees as well as increased toleration of private enterprise. Cuba also began acquiring weapons from the Soviet Union, which soon became the countrys chief supporter and trade partner. [436], Castro's primary residence was at Punto Cero, a large and vegetative estate approximately 6km from the Palacio de la Revolution in the Siboney neighbourhood. [420], Within Cuba, Castro was primarily referred to by his official military title Comandante El Jefe; he was usually addressed as Comandante (The Commander) in general discourse as well as in person but could also be addressed as El Jefe (the Chief) in the third person, particularly within the party and military command. Corrections? Adopting a MarxistLeninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Fidel Castros revolutionary career began while he was enrolled at the School of Law of the University of Havana, when he participated in resistance movements in the Dominican Republic and Colombia. [59] The attack took place on 26 July 1953, but ran into trouble; 3 of the 16 cars that had set out from Santiago failed to get there. The group's purpose was to oppose the influence of the violent gangs within the university; despite his promises, Pro had failed to control the situation, instead offering many of their senior members jobs in government ministries. Castro responded that "revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction. [75] Meanwhile, Castro's wife Mirta gained employment in the Ministry of the Interior, something he discovered through a radio announcement. [109] The opposition called a general strike, accompanied by armed attacks from the MR-26-7. [353], In a February 2008 letter, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief at that month's National Assembly meetings,[354] remarking, "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer". In response to the siege of Cuito Cuanavale in 19871988 by South AfricanUNITA forces, Castro sent an additional 12,000 Cuban Army troops to Angola in late 1987. Attracting the attention of the national press, the speech angered the gangs and Castro fled into hiding, first in the countryside and then in the US. This earned Castro respect throughout the Arab world, in particular from the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who became a friend and ally. Whereas Fidel was "charismatic, energetic, visionary but extremely impulsive and totally disorganized", Ral was described as a "natural, methodical, and uncompromising organizer". [438] The house itself was decorated in a classical Caribbean style, with local wicker and wood furniture, porcelain plates, watercolor paintings, and art books. Castros brother Ral, minister of the armed forces, ranked second to him in all government and party posts. [471], Castro had another daughter, Francisca Pupo (born 1953), the result of a one-night affair. Castro also disliked worrying about his appearance and hated shaving, making the beard and uniform all the more convenient for him. [437] Prior to the Revolution, Castro smoked various brands including Romeo y Julieta Churchill, H. Upmann, Bauza, and Partags. JTA Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whose death was announced late Friday, had a complicated history with Jews. [80], In 1955, bombings and violent demonstrations led to a crackdown on dissent, with Castro and Ral fleeing the country to evade arrest. [205] Undertaken in secrecy, only the Castro brothers, Guevara, Dortics and security chief Ramiro Valds knew the full plan. Pupo and her husband now live in Miami. [513] Balfour stated that Castro's "moral and political hegemony" within Cuba diminished the opportunities for democratic debate and decision making. [18] Student violence escalated after Grau employed gang leaders as police officers, and Castro soon received a death threat urging him to leave the university. [295] Cuban propaganda turned the siege of Cuito Cuanavle into a decisive victory that changed the course of African history and Castro awarded 82 soldiers medals of the newly created Medal of Merit for the Defense of Cuito Cuanavle on 1 April 1988. Universal vaccination against childhood diseases was implemented, and infant mortality rates were reduced dramatically. [123] Castro reached Havana on 9 January 1959. Batista was forced to flee the country in 1959. [206] Upon discovering it through aerial reconnaissance, in October the US implemented an island-wide quarantine to search vessels headed to Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis. There was no doubt about who the victors were. [9], In 1942, Castro transferred to the Jesuit-run El Colegio de Beln in Havana. [460] They were also his companions on special events, such as his birthday or during national holidays, which they would regularly exchange gifts and engage in one-sided discussions with Castro where he would recall his life stories. [467] Throughout his rule, Castro never named an official "First Lady" and when the need for such a public female companion was necessary, Celia Snchez or Ral's wife, Vilma Espn, would play such a role of la primera dama. In 1978 Cuban troops assisted Ethiopia in repelling an invasion by Somalia. [302], When Gorbachev visited Cuba in April 1989, he informed Castro that perestroika meant an end to subsidies for Cuba. [406], Castro was known for working long hours; he primarily woke up laterarely before 10 or 11amand started his working day around noon, and would work until late at night, often only going to bed at 3 or 4am. Castro's militants intended to dress in army uniforms and arrive at the base on 25 July, seizing control and raiding the armoury before reinforcements arrived. General Cantillo secretly agreed to a ceasefire with Castro, promising that Batista would be tried as a war criminal;[114] however, Batista was warned, and fled into exile with over US$300 million on 31 December 1958.
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