Fidel Castro: History Will Absolve Me

About the Author

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, in Cuba's Oriente Province to a wealthy sugar plantation owner of Spanish descent. Educated at a Jesuit institution, he began studying law at the University of Havana in 1945. In July 1947 Castro traveled to the Dominican Republic with a group of Cuban students with the aim of starting a coup against the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, who had been in power since 1930. The coup failed, and Castro returned to his studies at the university. It was at this time that he joined the Orthodox Party. In 1948 he was elected president of the Law Students Association, which he represented at a Latin American university students' congress in Colombia. The congress coincided with a civil war breaking out in Colombia, and Castro participated in skirmishes there before returning to Cuba. Castro earned his law degree in October 1950, but he soon abandoned his law practice to engage in revolutionary activities against the dictatorship of Batista.

At the end of his trial for his part in the Moncada Barracks attack, Castro was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. While he was being held at the prison on Isla de Pinos, he continued to plot Batista's overthrow. After having served less than two years, Castro was released in May of 1955 under a general amnesty granted by Batista. He went to Mexico to reorganize his revolutionary movement, which took the name 26th of July Movement. In December 1956 Castro and his followers returned to Cuba and were met by Batista's forces. Only about twenty escaped death or capture, Castro among them. Castro and his followers continued to wage a guerrilla war against the Batista government until January 1, 1959, when Castro claimed victory and Batista fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic. Castro became Cuba's prime minister on February 16, 1959, and eventually turned from his ideals of a democratic government to a dictatorship. When, on April 16, 1961, he declared the Cuban Revolution to be Marxist-Leninist, he turned Cuba into the first Socialist state in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba became a close ally of the Soviet Union, thus creating hostile relations with the United States. This conflict led the United States to declare an embargo against Cuba on February 17, 1962. Castro remained in power in Cuba until February 19, 2008, at which time flagging health forced him to formally relinquish the presidency.