Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a revolutionary & politician who was Prime Minister of Cuba (1959-76) & President (1976-2008). He also served as the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (1959-2008) & as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (1961-2011). Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state. Industry & businesses were nationalized, & socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Internationally, Castro was also Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement (1979-83 & 2006-08).
Illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic & Colombia, he planned the overthrow of the USA-backed military junta of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, & served a year's imprisonment in 1953 after a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks. On release he went to Mexico, where he formed a revolutionary group with his brother Raúl & friend Dr. Che Guevara, the 26th of July Movement. Returning to Cuba, he led the revolution which ousted Batista in 1959, & brought his own assumption of military & political power. Alarmed by his revolutionary credentials & cordial relations with the USSR, the Eisenhower & Kennedy administrations unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by economic blockade, assassination & counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an economic & military alliance with the Soviets, & allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
In 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of his administration, with Cuba becoming a one-party state under Communist Party rule; the first of its kind in the western hemisphere. Socialist reforms introducing central economic planning & expanding healthcare & education were accompanied by state control of the press & suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported foreign revolutionary groups in the hope of toppling world capitalism, sending Cuban troops to fight in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War & Angolan Civil War. Following the USSR's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its economic "Special Period", before forging alliances in the Latin American Pink Tide–-namely with Hugo Chávez' Venezuela–-& joining the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in 2006. Due to failing health, in 2006 he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who assumed the presidency in 2008.
Castro was a controversial & divisive world figure, lauded by his supporters as a champion of socialism, anti-imperialism, humanitarianism & environmentalism, viewed by his critics as a dictator who's overseen multiple human-rights abuses, an exodus of over a million Cubans & the impoverishment of the country's economy. Thrugh his actions & writings he significantly influenced the politics of various individuals & groups across the world.
“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.”
“I will not speak of him as if he were absent, he has not been and he will never be. These are not mere words of consolation. Only those of us who feel it truly and permanently in the depths of our souls can comprehend this. Physical life is ephemeral, it passes inexorably... This truth should be taught to every human being -- that the immortal values of the spirit are above physical life. What sense does life have without these values? What then is it to live? Those who understand this and generously sacrifice their physical life for the sake of good and justice -- how can they die? God is the supreme idea of goodness and justice.”
“The solutions put forth by imperialism are the quintessence of simplicity...When they speak of the problems of population and birth, they are in no way moved by concepts related to the interests of the family or of society...Just when science and technology are making incredible advances in all fields, they resort to technology to suppress revolutions and ask the help of science to prevent population growth. In short, the peoples are not to make revolutions, and women are not to give birth. This sums up the philosophy of imperialism.”
“...quality of life lies in knowledge, in culture. Values are what constitute true quality of life, the supreme quality of life, even above food, shelter and clothing.”
“La historia me absolverá!”
“Es que, cuando los hombres llevan en la mente un mismo ideal, nada puede incomunicarlos, ni las paredes de una cárcel, ni la tierra de los cementerios, porque un mismo recuerdo, una misma alma, una misma idea, una misma conciencia y dignidad los alienta a todos.”
“I’m not attached to anything.I’m attached to what it feels it's my duty, to do my duty.I think that I will die with the boots on.”
“The ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry, but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger.”
“Today, the entire country is an immense University.”
“A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.”
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