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BIOGRAPHY OF CASTRO
August 13, 1926:
Fidel Castro is born on his family's sugar
plantation in Oriente province in Cuba. From a very
wealthy family, young Castro spent many of his early
years in Catholic boarding schools.
1945: Castro attends
the University of Havana's law school and earns a
degree. During his student years, Castro becomes a
political activist. He is dedicated to social justice
and committed to reform of government, which he views
as corrupt.
1947: Castro joins the
Ortodoxos party, which has a mandate to bring about
peaceful revolutionary change through constitutional
means.
1948: Castro
attends a Pan-American conference in Bogata, Columbia.
The student congress turns violent and many people
are killed in the riot. The passion and drama of the
event compel Castro to consider guerilla warfare as
a means of revolutionary change.
1949: Castro marries
Mirta Diaz Balart and has his first son, Fidelito.
The marriage lasts only 5 years. Castro gets custody
of Fidelito and never re-marries (although he fathers
many more children in several common-law relationships).
1950: Fidel Castro opens
a private law practice in Havana and devotes himself
to helping the poor.
1952: Edauro Chibas,
Castro's politician mentor, commits suicide during
a radio broadcast. Fidel accompanies him to the hospital.
Castro plans to run for the House of Representatives
in the next election but General Batista overthrows
Cuba's government in a coup. Castro challenges the
new regime in court but is unsuccessful.
1953: Castro puts together
a small band of revolutionaries and organizes an armed
attack on the Moncada barracks in Oriente province
on July 26th. Half of the attackers are killed. Castro
and his brother Raul are taken prisoner. He is sentenced
to 15 years in prison.
In response to the charges against him Castro gives
a speech called 'History will Absolve Me' which becomes
the manifesto of his movement.
1955: Fidel Castro is
released from prison in a general amnesty. He goes
to Mexico and organizes Cuban exiles into a fighting
force called the 26th of July Revolutionary Movement.
He meets Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, an Argentinean doctor
who is dedicated to radical politics and socialist
causes.
1956: A group of 82 men
launch at attack on the north coast of Oriente province.
Only 12 survive and they re-treat in the Sierra Maestra
mountains and continue to wage guerilla warfare. The
movement grows to 800 men.
Casto's movement grows in popularity as he promises
class and farming reforms and an end to Batista's
corrupt government.
1958: As the military
campaigns continue, the U.S. ceases to support Batista
and orders an arms embargo. In May, Batista pushes
back with an offensive that he loses.
January 1, 1959: Batista
flees Cuba and Castro's small force makes a victorious
entry into Havana. Tension with the U.S. government
grows as the Cuban government begins to expropriate
American-owned properties.
1960: Cuba becomes friendly
with the USSR and makes an agreement to buy Russian
oil. The U.S. imposes an economic blockade that is
still in force today.
1961: Diplomatic relations
end with the U.S. A force of 1,300 Cuban exiles, trained
and supported by the CIA, attempt to invade Cuba at
the Bay of Pigs. The Cuban army easily defeats the
rebels.
1962: The U.S. government
discovers that the Soviet Union is setting up long-range
ballistic missiles in Cuba. This is perceived as a
threat and President Kennedy institutes a naval blockade
of Cuba. President Kennedy warns the Russians that
if they launch a missile from Cuba, the U.S. will
retaliate with full force against them.
On October 24, the Russian ships carrying the missiles
turn back and the missile sites in Cuba are dismantled.
Meanwhile, Castro is very popular in Cuba. He institutes
sweeping land reforms which give land to the masses
of peasants. He nationalizes hundreds of major companies
in Cuba which had been previously foreign owned. He
also sets up free education and health care for all
Cubans.
But the upper and middle class in Cuba grow disillusioned
with Castro's plan for the country. Thousands of Cubans
risk their lives to escape to the U.S. rather than
live in Castro's communist state.
1991: The collapse of
communism in the Soviet Union throws Cuba into a domestic
crisis. Economic aid ceases and Cuba endures a massive
recession. Castro tries to modernize Cuba's economy
by allowing some private enterprise.
2000:
Elian Gonzalez, a young Cuban boy is the lone survivor
of a Cuban refugee boat wreck that claimed his mother's
life. His relatives in Miami fight to keep him in
the U.S. but Fidel Castro insists that the boy be
returned to Cuba to live with his Cuban father. A
bitter battle ensues. The U.S. government finally
seizes the child from a home in Miami and returns
him to Cuba with his father.
2003: Fidel
Castro is strongly criticized after he orders the
death of three men who had tried to hijack a passenger
ferry.
Castro has been with his current
common-law wife Dalia Soto del Valle for 30 years
and they have 5 sons; Angel, Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis
and Alex.
He is now the longest serving leader of any country
in the world.
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