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Máximo Líder - El Comandante
Almost everywhere you look in Cuba, on posters, pictures, house walls, entrance doors, you can see the likeness of Fidel Castro. He is usually depicted as the revolutionary leader in his green uniform. Sometimes alone, sometimes with other revolutionary fighters such as Che Guevara or Camilo Cienfuegos.
To this day, opinions are divided. Some call him a human rights violator and brutal dictator, while others celebrate him as a national hero who achieved victory over the Batista regime in 1959. But one thing can be said with great certainty: No one who visits Cuba will be able to escape the thought of the Cuban Revolution.
Castro's historical significance has had a profound impact on the country and his figure remains a central symbol of Cuban identity and history.
The life of Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, but known around the world as Fidel Castro, was born on August 13, 1926 in Birán in the province of Holguín in eastern Cuba and died on November 25, 2016 in Havana , the capital of Cuba. Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary and politician and the president of the island nation of Cuba for decades from 1959 to February 24, 2008.
Fidel Castro was the illegitimate son of the landowner Àngel Castro y Argiz and his housekeeper and cook Lina Ruz González. Together with his six siblings, including his younger brother Raúl Castro (former President of Cuba from 2008 to 2018), Fidel grew up on his parents' finca Mañacas in the mountain village of Birán, 66 km east of Holguín.
As Fidel Castro wanted to become a lawyer, he went to Havana in 1945 to study law. During his student years, he became involved in politics. He opposed the corrupt government of dictator Fulgencio Batista and made it his mission to overthrow it.
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The preparation of the Cuban revolution
In 1953, he and other opponents of the regime took part in an attempted revolution by storming the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The fighters used the carnival celebrations for the attack, as they assumed that the troops were tired because of these celebrations. Due to the poor preparation and the poorly armed opponents of the regime, the attempt was unsuccessful.
Fidel Castro and many of his comrades-in-arms were arrested or executed. Castro survived and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Isla de Pinos. In 1955, he was released from prison after just two years and founded the 26th of July Movement together with his companions in Cuba on June 12, 1955. He went into exile in Mexico and, together with his brother Raúl Castro and other opponents of the regime, prepared an armed expedition to Cuba to overthrow the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The Argentinian Che Guevara soon joined this group as a doctor.
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The Cuban revolution
On November 25, 1956, 82 guerrilla fighters, including the Castro brothers Fidel and Raúl and the Argentinian Che Guevara, set off for Cuba on the yacht "Granma". However, their arrival in Cuba went differently than planned. The rebels did not come ashore unnoticed, but were already expected by the Cuban military. Many of the guerrilla fighters died on arrival. The Castro brothers and Che Guevara were able to flee with a small rebel force into the mountains of the Sierra Maestra. The area was difficult to access and very vast, making it impossible for the Cuban military to locate the rebels' camp. The rebels gained the trust of the local inhabitants and so Fidel Castro was able to strengthen his army with new fighters. After two years of fierce fighting between the rebels and the Batista regime, Batista fled into exile on January 1, 1959 and the rebels were victorious, toppling the corrupt government.
After the victory over Flugencio Batista, Fidel Castro arrived in Havana on January 8, 1959 and became the new president of Cuba.
Fidel Castro - the new President of Cuba
Fidel Castro expanded the social system by sending teachers to the countryside, building homes for the poor and providing free basic medical care so that everyone could go to the doctor and obtain medicines at low cost. Castro also sent well-trained doctors around the world, especially to third world countries. He increased workers' wages, nationalized US companies without compensation and expropriated large landowners, starting with his father's sugar cane plantation, which he was the first to set on fire.
Of course, there are also many critics who see Fidel Castro not as a national hero, but as a horrific dictator of Cuba and human rights violator, as he had supporters of the Batista regime publicly executed or imprisoned in labor camps.
Term of office and end of life
On 01.08.2006, Fidel Castro handed over the office of head of state to his younger brother Raúl Castro for the time being due to a serious illness. On February 19, 2008, Castro retired completely and permanently from office and Raúl Castro was officially elected by parliament as his successor as President on February 24, 2008 (2008 - 2018).
On November 25, 2016, Fidel Castro died at the age of 90 in Havana, the capital of Cuba. This was followed by nine days of national mourning, during which the consumption of alcohol, dancing and music was prohibited in his honor. At his own request, Castro was cremated one day after his death. Cubans were allowed to bid farewell to the long-serving head of state in person at the urn in the Plaza de la Revolución before he was buried on December 4, 2016 at the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba.
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