Fidel Castro was born on 13th August 1926 in eastern Cuba. His father was a wealthy sugar cane farmer. His father first came to Cuba during the war of independence. He was a dogged self-made capitalist. His mother was a domestic servant for his father’s family. She gave birth to him out of wedlock.
Fidel Castro: Early years
Growing up among barefoot sons of poor farm laborers helped to shape his inclination towards them. He had a firsthand experience of the hardship they went through and often argued with his father over their treatment.
Fidel Castro attended Colegio de Belen and a couple of other Jesuit schools. Later, he enrolled at the University of Havana. While in the university, he developed an interest in politics.
He joined the anti-corruption orthodox party. Castro also joined violent student action groups. In fact, he was part of a coup attempt against Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo. However, the coup plot failed.
In 1950, Fidel Castro graduated from University. Upon graduation, he opened a law office. He was an ambitious lawyer with eyes on the seat in Cuba’s congress. Two years later, he ran for election to the Cuban House of Representatives. However, the election never took place as Batista seized power.
Castro’s Revolution
In July 1953, Fidel Castro led about 120 men to attack the barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Their attempt failed, and as a result, Castro was caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1955, Batista released him and some others as part of a general amnesty. Batista also used the pardon to gain some political grounds, especially with regards to his image abroad.
Castro traveled to Mexico, where he met fellow revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Both men plotted another move politically. In the following year, Fidel Castro and 31 others sailed on a yacht to Eastern Cuba. Government forces immediately became aware and caught them in an ambush. He managed to escape together with his brother Raul and 17 others. They fled to the Sierra Maestra Mountains with no weapons or supplies.
A Big Change
Fidel Castro took a number of recruits, and they started launching raids on small army posts; when they successfully overtook the small posts, they collected their weapons. In this sense, by 1957, they were already winning battles against the Guard patrols.
In 1958, Batista tried to eliminate the group. He employed a huge arsenal within his control, including air force bombers and naval offshore units. The guerrillas were able to hold their ground and launched a counter-attack. They took over control from Batista on January 1, 1959. Afterward, Castro took over as prime minister. Simultaneously, some tribunals tried the old regime for war crimes.
When Castro came to the US as the new prime minister of Cuba, it is amazing that he distanced himself from communism and wooed the press. He was full of sweet words when he met with Vice President Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon wrote to President Eisenhower that Castro had great potential to be a leader of men. He affirmed that Castro would be a major force in the development of Latin America.
The world was shocked when Fidel Castro took over the government and shut down all opposition newspapers. He took control of much of the economy and social organizations.
Moving Crowds with Speeches
Hundreds of thousands turned up to listen to Castro’s speeches. Having a great skill of oratory would typically take his listeners on a journey through the annals of history. He will take statistics and prove his ideas. He often chuckled about his enemies and attacked the capitalist system as totally unjust.
Often he called for a revolution in America, accusing the wealthy businessmen of stealing the people’s money. According to him, they need to all get shot and lose the wealth they have acquired.
Most of the foreign revolutions that Cuba’s government inspired disappeared. One of these was Guevara’s attempt to bring Revolution to Bolivia. The plot failed gallantly. He was captured and killed in 1967.
Fidel Castro’s Rule
When Fidel Castro became the prime minister of Cuba, he nationalized every business owned by U.S. citizens. These include casinos, factories, and oil refineries.
The US government became unsure after noticing Castro’s drift to left-wing politics. It started imposing economic restrictions and supporting plots to oust him from power. Washington saw him as a virus that could easily infect other Latin American countries if nothing was done to stop him. And true to type, he pushed toward the Soviet camp. He transformed factories and shops into state enterprises. All farms became the property of the government. Independent labor unions were integrated into the communist system, and there were no opposition parties.
In education, many parents were not comfortable with the communist education that the system exposed the tender minds of their children to. Many parents sent their children to the U.S under a program of the Catholic Church.
Embargo
The singular action of nationalizing all U.S businesses made the U.S end all diplomatic relations with Cuba. Incidentally, that embargo still stands today. In fact, as part of President Trump’s last official duties in the office, he placed trade sanctions on Cuban businesses.
In April 1961, about 1,400 Cuban exiles landed in Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro. Their attempt was a disaster mainly because it was not properly planned and executed. About 100 of them were killed, and others were captured. In 1962, Fidel Castro freed these prisoners in exchange for baby food and medical supplies.
In late 1961, Fidel Castro publicly announced his main ideologies as Marxist and Leninist. Having been banished and denounced by the United States, Cuba had to rely on the Soviet Union for military and economic support. In October 1962, the US discovered a site of nuclear missiles 90 miles away from Florida. After 13 days of diplomatic negotiations, leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the nuclear weapons. In exchange for this gesture, the U.S. agreed not to invade Cuba and take their nuclear weapons out of Turkey.
Cuba under Fidel Castro
Upon taking over power, Fidel Castro stopped racial discrimination and improved the education and healthcare system. He also provided electricity to rural communities. However, in addition to the progress, Castro also committed some atrocities. He had a long record of repression.
Thousands of Cuban citizens were intimidated, harassed, and imprisoned. Those who were imprisoned were kept under inhuman conditions. In some cases, he denied an entire generation political freedom.
In essence, many of the gains made through health and education improvement were undermined by long periods of hardship in the economy. They were as well undermined by policies that subjugated any dissidents or contrary opinions. While many countries moved away from authoritarian rule, Fidel Castro maintained this system and continued to repress all civil and political rights.
Moreover, Fidel Castro forced opposition newspapers to shut down and jailed thousands of political opponents. He also made no attempts to hold elections. Due to the prevailing environment of domination, subjugation, and repression under Castro, many Cubans often left for the U.S.
Between the 1960s and 1980s, Fidel Castro volunteered military and financial aid to Latin America and Africa’s leftist movements.
Emigration
Under Fidel Castro’s rule, many citizens were disgruntled with the system of government. Also, the economy was getting worse due to the drastic transformation. Tens of thousands risk their lives in boats, which they had to improvise. A countless number of these died on their way to Florida. Castro turned the situation to his advantage, seizing the opportunity to get rid of dissidents. He employed a similar strategy during the economic hardships of 1994. He got rid of tens of thousands of dissenters.
Making Medical Training a Priority
Fidel Castro responded to losing many Professional medical practitioners by putting a priority on medical training. He built schools and formed armies of volunteer teachers to eradicate illiteracy. This method proved effective, and during his final years in power, Cuba had a surplus of doctors. He sent doctors on missions overseas to places like Venezuela, Bolivia, and Central America.
Godfather of Leftist Leaders
Fidel Castro was the only Third World leader who prompted U.S. hostility for a long time. In 1962, he nearly bought the world into a nuclear war. He sent thousands of troops to back left-wing governments in Africa and Latin America. Castro endured U.S. sanctions and outlasted 10 United States presidents. Subsequently, he resigned 11 months before Obama became president, having undergone intestinal surgery.
After stepping down, he transferred power to his brother Raul, with whom he had fought many battles side by side. For many, he was a champion of the poor and a symbol of liberation. Partly the symbol he represented was successfully defeating a dictator and bringing free education and healthcare to the masses’ reach. These were people who never would have dreamt of getting access to education.
Loved or Hated, Never Ignored
On the contrary, he represented repression that locked up political opponents and suppressed civil rights to others. He succeeded in destroying the Island’s economy because of his ideologies. One of Castro’s characteristics is that he never listened to superior arguments or entertained any contrary ideas. Also, he never compromised. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans had to escape as Fidel Castro began to transform a capitalist nation into a socialist state. This was to the dismay of reformists who hoped that he would overthrow Batista’s dictator and restore democratic rule.
The exodus of professionals and Political opponents transformed Cuba and parts of the United States, especially Florida. These areas became strong anti-Castro centers.
As Cuban exiles gained political strength, they became instrumental in sustaining the trade embargo against Cuba. Fidel Castro was a tyrant. A number of people whose families were displaced and properties seized confirmed this.
To those who loved him and those who hated him, Castro was a notorious figure who played a key role in molding world history for the greater part of the 20th century.
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