Fidel Castro: Early Years

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Fidel Castro
CONTENTS
1. Fidel Castro: Early Years
2. Castro’s Revolution Begins
3. Castro’s Rule
4. Cuban Life under Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) established the first communist

state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the
military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba
for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother
Raúl in 2008. During that time, Castro’s regime was successful in
reducing illiteracy, stamping out racism and improving public health
care, but was widely criticized for stifling economic and political
freedoms. Castro’s Cuba also had a highly antagonistic relationship with
the United States–most notably resulting in the Bay of Pigs invasion and
the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two nations officially normalized relations
in July 2015, ending a trade embargo that had been in place since 1960,
when U.S.-owned businesses in Cuba were nationalized without
compensation. Castro died on November 25, 2016, at 90.
Fidel Castro: Early Years

Castro was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, a small town in eastern
Cuba. His father was a wealthy Spanish sugarcane farmer who first
came to the island during the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898);
his mother was a domestic servant for his father’s family who bore him
out of wedlock. After attending a couple of Jesuit schools–including the
Colegio de Belén, where he excelled at baseball–Castro enrolled as a
law student at the University of Havana. While there, he became
interested in politics, joining the anti-corruption Orthodox Party and
participating in an aborted coup attempt against the brutal Dominican
Republic dictator RafaelTrujillo.
Did you know? In addition to the Bay of Pigs invasion,

the United States made several failed attempts on
Fidel Castro's life, including poisoning his cigars with
Botox.
In 1950, Castro graduated from the University of Havana and opened a
law office. Two years later, he ran for election to the Cuban House of
Representatives. The election never happened, however, because
Batista seized power that March. Castro responded by planning a
popular uprising. “From that moment on, I had a clear idea of the
struggle ahead,” he said in a 2006 “spoken autobiography.”
Castro’s Revolution Begins

In July 1953, Castro led about 120 men in an attack on the Moncada
army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The assault failed, Castro was
captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison, and many of his men
were killed. The U.S.-backed Batista, looking to improve his
authoritarian image, subsequently released Castro in 1955 as part of a
general amnesty. Castro ended up in Mexico, where he met fellow
revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara and plotted his return.
The following year, Castro and 81 other men sailed on the yacht
“Granma” to the eastern coast of Cuba, where government forces
immediately ambushed them. The estimated 18 survivors, including
Castro, his brother Raúl and Guevara, fled deep into the Sierra Maestra
Mountains in southeastern Cuba with virtually no weapons or supplies.
According to Castro, the revolutionaries started reorganizing with only

two rifles,. But by early 1957 they were already attracting recruits and
winning small battles against Rural Guard patrols. “We’d take out the
men in front, attack the center, and then ambush the rear when it
started retreating, in the terrain we’d chosen,” Castro said in his spoken
autobiography. In 1958, Batista tried to snuff out the uprising with a
massive offensive, complete with air force bombers and naval offshore
units. The guerrillas held their ground, launched a counterattack and
wrested control from Batista on January 1, 1959. Castro arrived in
Havana a week later and soon took over as prime minister. At the same
time, revolutionary tribunals began trying and executing members of
the old regime for alleged war crimes.
Castro’s Rule
In 1960, Castro nationalized all U.S.-owned businesses, including oil
refineries, factories and casinos. This prompted the United States to
end diplomatic relations and impose a trade embargo that still stands
today. Meanwhile, in April 1961, about 1,400 Cuban exiles trained and
funded by the CIA landed near the Bay of Pigs with the intent of
overthrowing Castro. Their plans ended in disaster, however, partially
because a first wave of bombers missed their targets and a second air
strike was called off. Ultimately, more than 100 exiles were killed and
nearly everyone else was captured. In December 1962, Castro freed
them in exchange for medical supplies and baby food worth about $52
million.
Castro publicly declared himself a Marxist-Leninist in late 1961. By that
time, Cuba was becoming increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union
for economic and military support. In October 1962, the United States
discovered that nuclear missiles had been stationed there, just 90 miles
from Florida, setting off fears of a World War III. After a 13-day standoff,
Soviet leader NikitaKhrushchev agreed to remove the nukes against the
wishes of Castro, who was left out of the negotiations. In return, U.S.
President John F. Kennedy publicly consented not to reinvade Cuba and
privately consented to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey.
Cuban Life under Castro

After taking power, Castro abolished legal discrimination, brought
electricity to the countryside, provided for full employment and
advanced the causes of education and health care, in part by building
new schools and medical facilities. But he also closed down opposition
newspapers, jailed thousands of political opponents and made no
move toward elections. Moreover, he limited the amount of land a
person could own, abolished private business and presided over
housing and consumer goods shortages. With political and economic
options so limited, hundreds of thousands of Cubans, including vast
numbers of professionals and technicians, left Cuba, often for the
United States.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Castro supplied military and financial aid
to various leftist guerilla movements in Latin America and Africa.
Nonetheless, relations with many countries, with the notable exception
of the United States, began to normalize. Cuba’s economy foundered
when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s and the United
States expanded sanctions even further. Yet Castro, who by this time
had switched his title from prime minister to president, found new
trading partners and was able to cling to power until 2006, when he
temporarily gave control of the government to Raúl after undergoing
emergency intestinal surgery. Two years later, in 2008, he permanently
resigned.
In 2015, U.S. and Cuban officials announced they had agreed to terms
on the normalization of relations between the two nations, with mutual
embassies and diplomatic missions opening in each country.
Castro died on November 25, 2016, at the age of 90. His death was
announced on state television and later confirmed by his brother Raúl.
Castro will be laid to rest in the city of Santiago de Cuba

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 SHOWS

 THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1. Fidel Castro: Early Years

2. Castro’s Revolution Begins

4. Cuban Life under Castro

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) established the first communist

Fidel Castro: Early Years

Did you know? In addition to the Bay of Pigs invasion,

Castro’s Revolution Begins

According to Castro, the revolutionaries started reorganizing with only

Cuban Life under Castro

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