Fidel Castro

"History will absolve me." -Fidel Castro, after first imprisonment

Introduction

Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary and is now the current ruler of Cuba. Fidel was a lawyer. He was a leader of the guerilla warfare against Batista. He instituted reforms that helped the poor. He was thought of by some as a ruthless leader.

Early Life

Fidel Castro was born in Biran, near Mayari, Cuba on 1926 to a middle class family. His father owned a small plantation. He graduated from the University of Havana in 1950 with a law degree, opened a law office in Havana, and in 1952, ran for election in the Cuban House of Representatives.

Castro During the Revolution

After Castro ran for office in the House of Representatives, Batistan troops halted the election, and ended democracy in Cuba. Fidel was angered greatly by Bastista's motion, and formed an "underground" organization which plotted to overthrow Batista. This group attacked the Moncada Barracks (Cuba's second largest military base) on July 26, 1953. Castro's attack failed badly.
Their attack was the beginning of the guerrilla movement (later called the 26th of July Movement). Their mission was to take weapons by attacking Cuban army bases. Fidel was sent to trial from August to October of 1953, where he declared that "the rebels" including himself, stood for a return to democracy according to the 1940 Constitution, agrarian reform, educational reform, even distribution of wealth to the poor, and the recovery of property and resources stolen by the government.
Fidel was found guilty and sent to jail. Castro only served 2 of the 15 years he was sentenced, but this gave him time to shape his ideas about politics, and resistance. He left prison in May 1955 and went to Mexico where he trained and indoctrinated troops for his guerrilla band. He then attempted to form a revolutionary force in the Sierra Maestra, and encourage revolt against Batista's army on November 24, 1956. This attempt against Batista also failed.
However, Castro did establish his military and political leadership. The peasantry supported Castro with food, information, and shelter. In turn, Castro promised them that he would redistribute land, and provide free education and decent health care. Then, after Batista fled Cuba on January 1, 1959, Castro became head of Cuban Armed Forces.

Castro As A Ruler

Castro became prime minister on February 1959. He passed the Agrarian Reform Law and the Urban Reform law, and redistributed property to the poor. The Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961 removed any doubt of Castro's socialistic ideas. He canceled promised elections on May 1961, declared the Constitution of 1940 outdated, and by December, Castro had turned Cuba into a socialist nation.
In 1962 Castro formed a secret alliance with the Soviet Union, who sent intercontinental missiles to Cuba. This led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the US and Soviet Union spent 3 weeks of negotiation. The Soviet Union then, without Castro's knowledge, retrieved the missiles out of Cuba.
Although his political plans were successful, his economic plans were not. He wanted to turn Cuba's agricultural economy into an industrial economy. By 1965, Castro changed his mind (after this plan failed miserably), and turned Cuba back into an agricultural economy. Due to this, from 1975-1985 private farmers were allowed to sell excess produce, but in 1986 Castro changed his mind again, and individuals were arrested and fined from profiting "too much" from private sales.
Although Castro had reversed his ideas on several occasions (which greatly disappointed many of his people) Castro had achieved his goal of becoming the leader of Cuba, and turning Cuba into an independent country from the domination of other wealthier and more powerful countries, and equally redistributing service and rights to the poor. He had also created the first Communist state in the Western Hemisphere.
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