Fidel Castro - The Picture Encyclopedia of Cultural Images

Fidel Castro - The Picture Encyclopedia of Cultural Images

Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary, now the president of Cuba, one of the last Communist states in the world. He was born in 1926 as a son of a Spanish soldier who fought in Cuba against the United States. Hence, Castro was brought up among strong prejudices against the United States, and during his school years, he became involved in radical political movements, and made many enemies in Cuba. After graduating from school, he became a lawyer who mostly protected the poor, and remained engaged in anti-US political movements.

Fidel Castro’s role as a revolutionary began after the coup of General Batista in 1952, which destroyed Castro’s chance to run on the elections in the following year and thus, attain a political position in a legal way. In 1953, Castro lead an attack against the Moncada Barracks, one of Batista’s main military bases. The attack failed, however, and half of the group was killed by the army, while the other half, including Fidel Castro and his brother, escaped into the mountains nearby.

They were discovered shortly after, captured, and brought to trial. Allegedly, Castro only avoided execution on capture by not revealing his identity. At the end of the trial Fidel Castro delivered a famous speech (“History will absolve me”), with elements borrowed from speeches of Mussolini and Hitler. He also used the contexts of these two leaders later on, during his presidency. At the trial in 1953, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Batista gave a general amnesty in 1955, releasing the Castro brothers among many other prisoners. They had been exiled to Mexico where they joined other refugees and founded the 26th of July Movement with the aim of overthrowing Batista’s government. In Mexico, Castro's men underwent military training, and were joined by more South Americans such as Che Guevara. The group, now counting 82 members, also remained in contact with the resistance in Cuba.

In 1956, Fidel Castro and his men returned to Cuba on the pleasure yacht Granma. Unfortunately, shortly after reaching the shore, they were spotted by the Cuban Air Force, and in the ensuing firefight only a dozen of the revolutionaries survived. Fidel Castro, his brother, Raul, Che Guevara, and the other few, again, escaped to the mountains. In the following two years, with the help of the local resistance, deserters from Batista's army, and bandits, using guerilla tactics, they organized sabotages and engaged the Cuban army in many battles. The civil war reached its peak in 1958, when Batista sent 10 000 soldiers against the rebels. One of the most famous battles of this period is that of Santa Clara, where Che Guevara led Castro's men, and which ended with the defeat of Batista's forces.

By December 1958, Batista was completely defeated, and was forced to escape the country. In early 1959, Fidel Castro assumed the position of President, which he retains ever since. In the same year, he went to the United States and Canada, and also invited KGB advisors to Cuba, which left little doubt about his views or Cuba's new allegiance in the Cold War. To strengthen these ties, Castro made economic and military pacts with the Soviet Union.

In the following years, tension had been constantly rising between the United States and Fidel Castro's government. In 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion occurred, in which the United States, in accordance with his policies in South America at that time, tried to remove Castro by force. The CIA trained and armed more than a thousand Cuban exiles, expecting that by assaulting Cuba, they could start a revolution against Castro. Castro, however, expecting this, imprisoned his opposition, and repelled the attackers. Shortly after, he declared that Cuba is a Communist country, and the United States set up a travel and economic ban against Cuba which is in effect ever since.

To prevent any further American attacks on Fidel Castro's regime, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union at that time, saw it fitting that the USSR deploys nuclear missiles in Cuba which could reach major American cities. By this, in 1962 the Cold War reached one of its "warmest" points, and President Kennedy declared that an attack on the United States would result in "full retaliation" against both Cuba and the Soviet Union. In the end, Khrushchev agreed to retreat the missiles from Cuba, which enraged Castro, but saved the world from a nuclear war. As Che Guevara once commented in an interview, the Cuban government was ready and more than willing to use the Russian missiles against the United States.

In the following decades, Fidel Castro made Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union tighter. Another priority of his foreign policies was to help other "third world" countries establishing a Communist system, even with military support of the local Communist forces. Castro visited Chile and South Africa, and supported the government of Angola and South African countries with arms and soldiers. This period lasted until the late 1980's, when the reforms of Gorbachev and his visit to Cuba severed the ties between the Castro regime and the former Communist bloc, resulting in a great economic depression.

Today, Fidel Castro is still the leader of Cuba. Allegedly, he has no personality cult, and is generally appreciated among the people of Cuba. Castro usually gives speeches lasting for hours, and denies any news regarding his aging and various diseases. After his death, is it believed that his younger brother, Raul will take over Presidency in Cuba, as he is currently the leader of the military.

Picture 1: Fidel Castro