Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016, in Havana at age 90. His death prompted a national nine-day mourning period during which his ashes were transported across the island to Santiago de Cuba, where he was interred in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, symbolizing the closing of a revolutionary era.

On July 31, 2006, due to declining health, Fidel Castro temporarily transferred his responsibilities to his brother Raúl Castro. This transition marked the beginning of the end of his active governance, although he formally stepped down in 2008.

On December 2, 1976, Fidel Castro assumed the titles of President of the Council of State and President of the Council of Ministers, roles he held until 2008. This institutionalized his leadership within Cuba’s socialist framework and underscored the institutional continuity of his authority.

Fidel Castro was officially sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba on February 16, 1959. He began consolidating power by launching agrarian reform, nationalizing industries, and initiating widespread social programs, laying the foundations of Cuba’s socialist state.

On January 1, 1959, Batista fled Cuba as Castro’s guerrilla forces closed in. The 26th of July Movement had triumphed, and Fidel Castro emerged as the de facto leader of the revolution. This marked the beginning of profound political and social transformation in Cuba.

On July 26, 1953, Castro led an armed assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, aiming to ignite a revolution against Batista’s dictatorship. Though the attack failed and Castro was imprisoned, his subsequent trial speech—"History Will Absolve Me"—became a manifesto of the revolutionary movement.

On March 10, 1952, General Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup and canceled the scheduled elections for which Castro was running as a Partido Ortodoxo candidate. Disillusioned by legal means to achieve change, Castro turned toward organizing armed resistance.

Castro earned his Doctorate of Law in September 1950 from the University of Havana. He then opened a struggling legal partnership aimed at helping impoverished Cubans, though the firm failed financially. This attempt at formal political participation ended largely in failure, prompting his shift toward revolutionary methods.

In 1948, Castro married Mirta Díaz Balart, a woman from a wealthy Cuban family. In September 1949, their son, Fidelito, was born. This period exposed Castro to the upper echelons of Cuban society even as he further radicalized his political ideology.

In April 1948, Castro traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, where the assassination of popular leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán sparked massive riots known as the Bogotazo. Castro joined students siding with the Liberal faction, participating in violent street clashes and reinforcing his radicalization and commitment to Marxist ideas.

On July 29, 1947, Castro joined an armed expedition aiming to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The expedition was suppressed before departure; Castro narrowly escaped arrest by jumping off a naval vessel and swimming ashore. The episode intensified his anti-imperialist convictions and propelled his trajectory towards revolutionary activism.

In late 1945, Fidel Castro enrolled in the University of Havana’s School of Law. During this time, he became politically active, participating in student protests against corruption and U.S. imperialism. He joined the Partido Ortodoxo led by Eduardo Chibás, and gained prominence as a vocal critic of Cuba’s political establishment and American influence.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, at his father’s farm in Birán, Oriente Province, Cuba. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy Spanish-Cuban farmer and Lina Ruz, Fidel’s early upbringing on the plantation exposed him to both privilege and the hardships endured by Haitian laborers, shaping his perceptions of social inequality from an early age. His baptism into the Catholic faith at age eight facilitated his access to elite Jesuit schools.