1926-08-13 ( 98 years old ) in Birán, Cuba
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.
Born in Birán, Oriente, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962.
Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "Special Period", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide" – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and formed the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006, Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. Description above from the Wikipedia article Fidel Castro, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
2024-09-11
The Queen and the Prime Ministers
2024-01-13
The Padilla Affair
2022-09-02
The Boys from Brazil: Rise of the Bolsonaros
2022-08-30
Rat Pack
2022-01-11
Becoming Cousteau
2021-10-22
A History of an Assignment
2021-08-28
I Am Jackie O
2020-11-26
537 Votes
2020-10-21
Wasp Network
2020-01-29
Laboratory Greece
2019-12-08
Amérique latine, l'année de tous les dangers
2019-03-15
Chop Chop Chang: Operation C.H.I.M.P
2019-01-11
ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium
2019-01-11
Cuba, un aller et un retour
2018-12-31
Another Day of Life
2018-10-26
Chavismo: The Plague of the 21st Century
2018-06-15
Karl Marx und seine Erben
2018-04-28
Cuba and the Cameraman
2017-09-08
El Che
2017-09-01
Two Meetings and a Funeral
2017-06-07
Angola: The War
2017-06-01
Elián
2017-04-21
Nobody
2017-01-13
Historien ska frikänna mig
2016-12-31
Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship
2016-12-07
Fidel Castro: America's Nemesis
2016-11-28
Assassinating Franco
2016-11-25
Castro: The World's Most Watched Man
2015-10-22
Celia - la más hermosa flor
2015-10-10
Laissez-faire
2015-01-30
Lee Harvey Oswald: 48 Hours to Live
2013-01-01
The Man Who Saved the World
2012-10-22
The Day That Lasted 21 Years
2012-09-30
Palme
2012-09-14
The Mayor
2012-08-18
7 Days in Havana
2012-04-05
Castro in Winter
2012-02-03
Ethel
2012-01-20
Året var 1962
2012-01-08
Memories of Overdevelopment
2011-11-26
Santiago Files
2011-09-23
El día más largo
2011-01-01
The Kennedy Detail
2010-12-02
Memória Cubana
2010-09-27
Being Fidel Castro
2010-01-19
The Inconclusive Independence
2010-01-05
Did the Mob Kill JFK?
2009-11-22
South of the Border
2009-09-07
La Rabbia di Pasolini
2008-09-05
Året var 1958
2008-01-06
Oswald's Ghost
2007-07-14
The War on Democracy
2007-06-15
Lejos de la isla
2007-01-25
Un Giorno con Fidel
2007-01-01
Cuba, el valor de una utopía
2006-12-01
638 Ways to Kill Castro
2006-11-28
Looking for Fidel
2006-06-19
I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
2005-04-14
The Adventures of Errol Flynn
2005-04-05
Salvador Allende
2004-09-08
Fidel Castro: Life for the Revolution
2004-04-26
Looking for Fidel
2004-04-14
Jack Paar: Smart Television
2003-11-29
Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers
2003-11-21
The Fog of War
2003-10-26
Comandante
2003-02-14
Che Guevara - Hasta La Victoria Siempre
2003-01-01
Naqoyqatsi
2002-09-02
Cuban Rafters
2002-04-12
The Cuban Game
2001-11-23
Dear Fidel: Marita's Story
2001-11-14
Kubánske otázniky
2000-08-01
The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files
1999-01-01
Soviet Union: The Rise and Fall - Part 2
1996-02-20
Ernesto Che Guevara - Uomo, Compagno, Amico
1995-01-01
Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
1993-01-20
8A
1993-01-01
JFK
1991-12-20
Portrait of Castro's Cuba
1991-04-07
Cuba 30 Anni Dopo
1990-01-01
American Expose: Who Murdered JFK?
1988-11-02
The Uncompromising Revolution
1988-01-01
Brascuba
1987-06-25
The CIA's War Against Cuba
1987-01-11
Fidel Racconta il Che
1987-01-01
Cuba: In the Shadow of Doubt
1986-06-21
Chile: A Genral Record
1986-01-01
Improper Conduct
1984-03-21
Anxiety. Thoughts of an Old Man
1984-01-01
On Company Business
1980-04-14
The Necessary War
1980-01-01
Mission Mind Control
1979-01-30
A Grin Without a Cat
1977-11-23
CBS Reports: The CIA's Secret Army
1977-06-10
My Brother, Fidel
1977-01-01
Waiting for Fidel
1975-11-14
General Idi Amin Dada
1974-05-29
The Society of the Spectacle
1974-05-01
Cuba and Fidel
1974-01-01
Venceremos, solidaridad
1973-12-31
Chile, el gran desafío
1973-03-10
And Heaven Was Taken by Storm
1973-01-01
The Exploitation of Man by Man
1972-10-18
Compromiso con Chile
1972-09-01
El Diálogo de América
1972-06-01
I Am a Son of America
1972-01-02
Fidel
1971-06-25
Cuba: Battle of the 10,000,000
1971-01-01
Topaz
1969-12-17
The Hour of the Furnaces
1968-09-08
Far from Vietnam
1967-10-18
Hello Cubans
1963-11-26
Muerte al invasor
1962-07-25
¡Cuba Sí!
1961-12-31
Island Ablazed
1961-01-01
Yanki No!
1960-07-07
General Assembly
1960-07-01
Cuban Rebel Girls
1959-12-25
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