Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, on his family's

sugar plantation near Biran, Oriente province, Cuba. His father, originally

an immigrant laborer from Galicia, Spain, became owner of a 23,000-acre

plantation.

As a boy, Castro worked in the family's sugar cane fields and at 6

years old convinced his parents to send him to school. He attended two

Jesuit institutions, the Colegio Lasalle and the Colegio Dolores, both in

Santiago. In 1942 he entered the Colegio Belen, a Jesuit preparatory

school in Havana. He was voted the school's best athlete in 1944.

In 1945 Castro attended the University of Havana's Faculty of Law, and

having earned a law degree, went into practice in 1950 in Havana with two

partners. As a lawyer he devoted himself to helping the poor.

Castro intended to campaign for a parliamentary seat in the election of

1952 but General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government of

President Carlos Prio Socarras and canceled the election.

Castro went to court and charged the dictator with violating the

constitution. The court rejected Castro's petition. With no legal recourse

left, Castro organized an armed attack by 165 men on the Moncada

Barracks in Oriente province on July 26, 1953. That attack and the one on

Bayamo garrison failed completely. Half the attackers were killed; Castro

and his brother Raul were taken prisoner. They were released in a general

amnesty on May 15, 1955.

Castro tried unsuccessfully to oppose the military dictatorship by

peaceful means. He then went to Mexico and organized Cuban exiles into

another fighting force called the 26th of July Revolutionary Movement.

The group of 82 men launched an attack on the north coast of ...

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Castro became a committed Marxist-Leninist who nationalized

industry, confiscated property owned by non-Cubans, collectivized

agriculture, and enacted policies to benefit laborers and peasants. Many of

the middle class fled the country, some establishing a large, active anti-

Castro community in Miami, Florida. Castro has supported a number of

other revolutionary movements in Latin America and Africa.

Cuba became increasingly dependent on the USSR, and the Soviet

Union's collapse in 1990 has brought economic hardship to Cuba. The

problem of Cuban refugees landing on U.S. shores has recently brought

the Cuban and U.S. governments together in negotiations. Conversely,

tensions were heightened when Cuban fighters shot down two unarmed,

U.S.-registered aircraft piloted by an anti-Castro relief organization

engaged in rescuing Cuban refugees.