He was the personification of the evil dictator
- clad in his familiar khaki uniform and cap and chomping on his cigar, he ruled with an
iron fist over his island nation. He took on the United States and brought the
world to the brink of nuclear holocaust. Shifting attention to his own country he decimated
the economy, creating a Communistic dictatorship that forced the people to revere him, even
as he ruined their lives. In this week’s Biogragphics we take a close
look at the life of Fidel Castro. Birth of a Dictator Fidel Castro was born on August 13th, 1926
in the small farming village of Manacas in northern Oriente, Cuba. His father,Angel Castro y Igas, had immigrated
from Spain in 1898 and picked up work as a bricklayer and railroad worker before starting
his own business selling lemonade to field workers. From this humble start, he built a small sugarcane
empire comprising 26,000 acres and 300 worker families. Angel’s first wife, Maria Argota, gave birth
to two children and then either died or simply walked out on the family. Angel soon took up with his young maid, Lina
Ruz Gonzalez, who bore him three children; Angela, Ramon and Fidel. The couple were married shortly after Fidel’s
birth. They were a relatively wealthy family who
lived in a Galician style two storey country house. Still, they lived a decidedly country lifestyle
with chickens and pigs wandering through the house. Fidel was named after a local politician,
with his name meaning ‘Faithful’. He had his father’s temperament, which meant
that he was prone to violent outbursts. His sister recalls that if he was playing
baseball and his team were losing he would simply gather up the equipment and walk off
the field. Close friend and future novelist Gabriel Garcia
Marquez recalled that Fidel was the worst loser he had ever met. When he reached school age, Fidel was sent
to study in Santiago, the second largest city in Cuba. For the first two years he stayed with his
Godparents and as homeschooled by them. After that he was enrolled at the Marist La
Salle School along with brothers Ramon and Raul. Fidel soon gained a reputation as a troublemaker
and a bully. When he was in the fourth grade, Fidel’s
father received a letter stating that his three boys were the biggest bullies in the
entire school. Angel was furious and pulled the boys out
of the school. This enraged Fidel who threatened to burn
down the house. He ended up being set to a more demanding
Jesuit school in Havana, with his father threatening to cut off his allowance if his grades dropped
below a certain level. Fidel responded by forging his school reports. Castro proved to be a decidedly average student
but there was one area in which he excelled. He had a photographic memory, a fact which
hugely impressed his fellow students. They would call to him a page number from
their textbooks and he would recite the page word for word. In his teens, Fidel began to develop his ability
as a public speaker and debater. After an initial rejection he gained acceptance
into the Allevenada Literary Academy, which was the literary wing at the Jesuit school. At first he was paralyzed by stage fright
but he gradually became more relaxed and confident in his presentations. In October, 1945, Fidel entered law school
at the University of Havana. At the time the university was a self governing
body which forbade the police or army from setting foot on campus. As a result, it was a hotbed of clandestine
activity by gangsters and political agitators. It was a very attractive environment for the
hotheaded Castro. Political Agitator Fidel’s first foray into political agitation
was precipitated by a rise in bus fares that had been authorized by Cuban President Ramon
Grau. Castro organized a protest against the fare
rise and led a march to the Presidential palace. The police beat the students, with Fidel himself
receiving slight injuries. He used the incident to his advantage by going
to the press and receiving some sympathetic coverage. At the time that Castro enrolled at the University,
there were two main gangster groups who were vying for control; the Socialist Revolutionary
Movement (MSR) and the Insurrectional Revolutionary Union (UIR). There were frequent violent clashes between
the two groups. Fidel quickly sized up the situation and began
to maneuver between the two groups. In December, 1946 there was an assassination
attempt on a leading member of the UIR and Castro was fingered as the triggerman, his
assumed motive being to ingratiate himself with MSR leadership. As it turned out, it was the leader of UIR,
Emilio Tro, who took Castro under his wing. He gave Fidel a pistol, which the young budding
revolutionary carried with him at all times. Tro had been planning an invasion of the Dominican
Republic in conjunction with a group of Dominican exiles in response to the terrible conditions
brought about by the rule of Rafael Trujillo. Castro quickly jumped on board and sailed
with about 12,000 fellow revolutionaries to Cayo Confites on July 29th, 1947. For two months they underwent paramilitary
training before setting off for the Dominican mainland. Meanwhile,Trujillo had learned of the planned
attack and had even appealed to the United States for aid. The revolutionary leaders got cold feet and
called off the invasion and the embarrassed Cuban army began rounding up the ships and
taking the would-be attackers into custody. Castro manage to evade custody by jumping
ship and swimming the eight miles to shore. In 1947, Castro visited a new model prison
on the Isle of Pines as part of his legal studies. When he returned to Havana he criticized the
prison and its inhumane treatment of its inhabitants. The following year he was part of a student
congress that travelled to Bogota, Colombia. On April 7th, the group met with the leader
of the Liberal Party, Jorge Gaitan, who looked likely to win the upcoming general election. Two days later, Gaitan was shot dead. Bogota erupted in violence and the students
from Cuba were caught in the middle of it. Castro became actively involved, participating
in the takeover of a police station. After three days, the authorities restod order,
but not before some 3,500 people had been killed. Castro returned to Havana where he became
a follower of Senator Eddie Chibas, the main opponent of President Grau. Chibas was the founder of the Cuban People’s
Party. Castro campaigned hard for Chibas in his unsuccessful
bid for the presidency in 1948. Still, the two men were never close. Chibas saw Fidel as somewhat of an embarrassment
due to his gangster background and Fidel only ever viewed the leader as an obstacle to his
own path to power. Budding Politician In order to gain political respectability,
Fidel cut off association with his gangster associates. He gave speeches on campus denouncing the
two main gangs and naming names of those who were responsible for criminal activity. This made him a target for both groups and
he was forced into hiding. Around this time Fidel, who was generally
awkward and shy around women, met Mirta Diaz-Balart, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men
in Cuba. The couple fell in love and were married in
1948, with Mirta’s father gifting them $10,000 for ap three month honeymoon in the United
States. Most of their time was sent in New York, where
Fidel learned some English. Returning to Cuba, the newlyweds moved into
a hotel across the street from a military camp in Havana. In September, 1949 Mirta gave birth to a son,
who would come to be known as Fidelito. Having graduated from University, Fidel began
a small law practice. Most of his time, however, was spent dabbling
in politics. On August 15th, 1951, People’s Party leader
Eddie Chibas was giving his usual Sunday radio address, urging the people to stop accepting
the corruption of the government and take action. He then pulled out a pistol and shot himself
in the stomach. The dramatic act was intended to rouse the
people but Chibas had spoken for too long and his suicide attempt was not broadcast. For the next eleven days, Chibas lay in a
hospital bed in terrible agony. At his side the whole time was Fidel Castro. When the leader died, Castro was prominent
as part of the honor guard that stood outside the University Hall of Honor, where Chibas
lay in state. As the military escort prepared to lead the
body through the streets in a large procession, Castro entreated the captain to divert the
route to the Presidential Palace. Fidel was convinced that he could rouse the
people to overthrow the government. But the army captain refused, fearing that
a bloodbath would ensue. The following year, Castro ran for a seat
on the Chamber of Deputies. He managed to garner the support of the majority
of the People’s Party members and looked in line to win in the upcoming election. However, on March 10th, former president Fulgencio
Batista staged a military coup and seized power. He began rounding up political adversaries,
including members of the People’s Party. Fidel and his brother Raoul went into hiding. The Batista coup diverted Castro from what
could have been a promising diplomatic career in favor of becoming a fully fledged revolutionary. He gathered together his own political group,
drawn from former People’s Party members and followers from his University days. Traveling up and down the country, he put
his oratorical and propaganda skills to full effect. After fourteen months, he had a following
of 12,000 people. Rebel Leader Castro ran his organization with military
precision and discipline. Drinking alcohol was forbidden and he imposed
strict sexual standards. He also organized his forces at a cellular
level, with members of each cell being unaware of the existence of other cells. By the middle of 1953, Castro had the support
base he needed to stage his own coup. What he didn’t have were weapons - or the
money to buy them. His solution was to attack a military base
and seize its weapons. The base selected was located at Moncado. The attack, however, was bungled from the
start - one of the twenty six vehicles en route to the base had a flat tire; another
took a wrong turn and did not arrive until the attack was well under way. When the remainder of the vehicles arrived
at the base they were surprised to find it heavily fortified. The military defenders soon beat back the
invaders, with eight of Castro’s men being killed. The remainder fled, but over the next few
days many of them were rounded up by the authorities. Sixty-nine of them were tortured and then
put to death. Castro himself was put on trial before a military
tribunal. He used the opportunity to speak out about
the regime of Batista and the harsh treatment of his fellow revolutionaries. His courtroom defense statement ‘History
Will Absolve Me’ would become probably his most famous speech. Still, he was convicted and sentenced to 15
years imprisonment. Castro and his followers were sent to Isle
of Pines prison. Fidel used his time there to instill a supreme
level of order and discipline in his men. The Castro rebels gained a reputation for
their good behavior and were given ever greater freedoms. On May 6th, 1954, bowing to public pressure,
president Batista granted amnesty to Castro and his men. The show of good faith from the president,
however, did not stop Castro from speaking about the regime. When two of his men were badly beaten by Batista
enforcers, Fidel became increasingly concerned for his own safety. He would move houses every two to three days
and then, just two months after being released from prison, he left Cuba for Mexico. It was Castro's plan to build up and train
a new wing of his revolutionary army in Mexico and then return to join forces with those
already in Havana in a huge push to oust the Batista regime. His Mexican army began as a group of about
sixty Cuban defectors who lived in six small houses under strict disciplinary conditions
imposed by Fidel. It was during this period that Castro met
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, who would play a key role on the coming revolution. Castro launched his revolution in late November,
1956 from the port of Tuxpan on the Mexican coast. It was planned to coincide with another uprising
organized by a rival anti-Batista group. Fidel had bought a 60 foot boat that was designed
to take a maximum of 25 passengers and piled 82 of his men onboard. As it chugged its way toward Cub, the boat
was in constant danger of capsizing. The journey was so slow that the planned five
day trip took seven days, meaning that they would miss the uprising of the other group. The boat beached at a place called Purgatory
Point on December 2nd. But by now Batista’s army, who had already
put down the first rebellion, had learned that Castro was on his way and had planes
overhead ready to strafe the invaders and bomb the area. Only about a dozen men survived, Castro and
Guevara among them. They began a three day march through the forest,
constantly being hounded from the air by the Cuban air force. They finally reached the Sierra Maestra region
where they settled with the local villagers and began to regroup. Six weeks later Castro led thirty three men
on a guerilla raid on a tiny army garrison in La Plata. Two soldiers were killed and the rebels stole
off with a number of weapons. A month after this attack, Castro decided
it was time to get his propaganda machine in motion. He sent one of his men to Havana to bring
a foreign journalist back to the camp. The man chosen was from the New York Times
and soon a three part story had appeared in that paper describing the massive military
buildup that Castro was organizing in the south of Cuba. Castro's support base grew exponentially,
with more and more disaffected Cubans joining his ranks. In March, 1958, younger brother Raoul began
to establish a second force out of Oriente, which soon grew in number. Raoul proved to be a highly capable military
commander, with his force capturing and destroying many planes, tanks and military vehicles. In April, Fidel called upon the people of
Cuba to stage a nationwide strike. He believed that this would be the start of
his long planned for uprising. President Bautista responded by threatening
to shoot anyone who participated in the strike. As a result, more than 140 people were shot
down in the street. But this action only fuelled Castro’s support
base and even more people streamed to him. With the tide now decidedly turned in his
favor, Castro decided to move. He sent Che Guevara and another of his commanders,
Camilo Cienfuegos, on a westward march toward Havana, along with their rebel forces. The government forces put up virtually no
resistance and the rebels were able to take control, one town after another. On December 31st, 1958, with Castro’s men
closing in, Batista resigned and fled the country. Three days later, Castro arrived in Santiago
to a hero’s welcome. He gave a speech in front of 200,000 people. Hours later, Guevara and Cienfuegos marched
into Havana and seized control of the reigns of power. The Castro era had begun. Castro’s Cuba The transfer of power was amazingly orderly. Castro had wanted his men against looting
or destroying property. He had come to power on the backs of a huge
army of poor and illiterate peasants. Now that he had gained power, he would need
educated men to help him to govern. He chose to appoint his former professor,
Jose Miro Cardona, as prime minister and Manuel Urrutia to be president. He made himself supreme commander of armed
forces. Behind the scenes, however, Castro put the
organization in place to ensure that he was the holder of overall power. In the weeks following the revolution more
than 500 Batista officials were tried, convicted and put to death. That number would rise to 1,900 over the coming
year. Within 7 months of seizing power, Castro decided
that he no longer had any need for the puppet government. On July 16th, he announced that he was resigning
his position as army commander because he could no longer work with President Urrutia,
who he accused of corruption. Castro then disappeared for a number of days. Just as Fidel had intended, the people rose
up in protest and demanded that the President must go. A frightened Urrutia sought sanctuary in the
Venezuelan embassy before escaping the country. This allowed Castro to return in triumph and
appoint himself as President. Castro now imposed totalitarian rule. Those who did not give him their absolute
support were in danger of being seized and put on trial or simply shot. Within a few short months all signs of resistance
within Cuba, including critical media, had been removed. Now Castro fixed his attention on securing
external security. A focus was put on increasing the size and
strength of the army. Six months after seizing power, Castro visited
the United States, where he was greeted with enthusiasm by the media, politicians and public
alike. Behind the scenes, however, the Eisenhower
government were already making plans for Castro’s removal. International Tensions In February 1960, the Cuban leader signed
an agreement with the Russians, by which Cuban sugar would be traded for military arms and
oil. This was at the height of the Cold War and
many of the oil refineries in Cuba were American owned. When the owners refused to process Soviet
oil imports, Castro seized their businesses. The US Government responded by cutting 700,000
tons from the US annual purchase commitment. In turn, Castro nationalized US owned agricultural
and industrial businesses. Castro's’ move had a huge impact on the
US Mafia, which lost about $100 million worth of property in the tourist industry alone. During the period of the nationalization of
industry, more than 200,000 professional and upper class citizens fled the country. Relations between the United States and Cuban
governments became so strained that, in March 1960, President Eisenhower green lighted the
training of a group of Cuban exiles to stage an invasion to seek control. The ball was picked up by President Kennedy,
resulting in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. Castro had gotten wind of the invasion and
had his forces ready and waiting. With the lack of promised US air support,
the Cuban rebels were cut to pieces. In December 1st, 1961 Castro went on national
television and declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and would be one until the day he died. The Soviets took a wary view of their newly
declared Communist fellow but the Americans responded immediately, imposing a total economic
blockade of Cuba. This led to economic disaster, with massive
food shortages resulting. Finally, the Soviet Government decided to
embrace Castro. They offered to station Soviet missiles on
the island. In mid October, 1962 the American government
got concrete evidence of the missile operation, leading to what became known as the Cuban
Missile Crisis. President Kennedy placed a total military
blockade around Cuba and announced that a military attack from Cuba on any nation would
be seen as a direct attack by the Soviet Union on the United States. Castro urged the Russians to make a pre-emptive
strike on the United States if the Americans attacked his island. After thirteen days, during the world was
a hair trigger away from Nuclear destruction, the Russians backed down and agreed to remove
the missiles. Castro was left completely out of the negotiation
process - and he was not happy. Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev tried to
placate him by inviting Castro on a 40-day trip through the Soviet Union. Durg the trip, Khrushchev offered to provide
economic aid to the struggling island. In 1965 the United States announced that it
was willing to take in Cuban refugees. This led to a mass exodus with a resultant
huge loss of skills and manpower. The Sugar Cane Fiasco With the international situation having settled,
Castro set his focus on making agricultural reforms to improve the economy. He wanted to increase the sugar harvest and
set a target for national production in 1965 of 5.5 million tons, increasing to 10 million
tons by 1970. These expectations, however, were totally
unreasonable. Still he poured nearly all of the country’s
economic resources into the sugarcane industry, leaving all other economic activity barren. The whole country, including the elderly,
young children and military workers were put to work in the fields in a desperate quest
to reach his targets. Even Castro himself was said to have cut cane
for four hours every day. As the rest of the Cuban economy fell by between
20 and 40%, the sugarcane project failed dismally to reach its projected targets. In 1970, Castro announced that the plan had
failed. Typical of his flair for the dramatic he resigned
his presidency. The people demanded he return and soon he
was back in power with the sugar cane crisis behind him. Throughout the 1970’s Castro began looking
for ways to extend his influence abroad. He began involving himself in revolutionary
movements and sending forces to train and lead various guerrilla operations. His support of civil wars in Angola and Somalia
ate up more of his country's limited resources. During the early 1980’s sugar prices and
production had increased significantly. This allowed the Cuban economy to grow at
a rate of 24%. But when the sugar price slumped dramatically,
ballooning Cuba’s international debt to the west to $6 billion. At the same time, she owed $19 billion to
the Soviet Union. The Soviets tried to help by increasing trade
but, with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, all the agreements fell apart. The already weak Cuban economy was severely
restricted. Strict rationing was put in place, the electricity
supply became sporadic and tractors were replaced with ox-drawn carts. With his country on the brink of collapse,
in 1993 Castro allowed Cubans to start private businesses. The following year he permitted foreign investors
to own Cuban businesses. The economy, which had declined by 40% in
the past three years, finally began to grow. The Death of a Dictator By the 1990’s Castro was an aging, isolated
and largely depressed dictator. The majority of his close associates were
either dead or had been exiled. He still kept up his habit of only staying
in a place for two or three nights, so he was constantly being moved around in a bulletproof
Mercedes limousine. During this period Castro’s tight grip on
the country seemed to loosen slightly. But then, in March 2003, he imposed a crack
down which saw scores of journalists, students and professional people arrested as dissidents
of the regime. In July 2006, the eighty-year-old Castro underwent
surgery for internal bleeding. The following year he handed over the Presidential
reigns to his brother Raul. From then, Fidel’s health gradually deteriorated. The end came on November 26, 2016, though
the exact cause of his death was never released. The country was in mourning for nine days.
