Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician. He 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. Castro polarized opinion throughout the world. His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism. Critics call him a dictator whose administration oversaw human rights abuses.
About Fidel Castro in brief
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician. He 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. He converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule. Castro polarized opinion throughout the world. His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism. Critics call him a dictator whose administration oversaw human rights abuses, the exodus of many Cubans, and the impoverishment of the country’s economy. The longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries, Castro is the longest serving leader of a Latin American country. He was the father of seven children, among them Fidel Castro Jr. and Lina Ruz González. He died in Havana, Cuba, on November 25, 2016, at the age of 90. He is survived by his brother Raúl Castro and his son Raul Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. Castro is buried in the Santiago de Cuba National Cemetery with his wife, Lina, and their children, Fidel and Raul Ruz Jr. The Castro family was originally from Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. Castro’s father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, was a veteran of the Spanish–American War.
He had become financially successful by growing sugar cane at Las Manacas farm in Birán, Oriente Province. Castro was sent to live with his teacher in Santiago, where he regularly misbehaved; he was next sent to privately funded Jesuit-run Dolores School in Santiago. In 1945, Castro began studying law at the University of Havana. Admitting he was illiterate, Castro became embroiled in the violent gangster activism and gangster culture. Although he did not excel academically, he took an interest in history, geography, and debating at Belén de Belén, a private Jesuit school in Havana. He later became the president of El Colegio de Belen, a privately funded school in Santiago Dolores, in which he was a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Castro became the first Cuban to be awarded the Order of the Red Cross. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the cause of human rights and the fight against poverty. Castro died of a heart attack in Havana in November 2016, aged 90, leaving behind a family of six children, including his son, Raul, and his daughter, Fidel Castro Jnr, who is now the President of the Republic of Cuba, and a son-in-law, Ramiro Castro, a former vice president and governor of the province of El Salvador. He leaves behind a wife and a daughter, both of whom are still living in the United States.
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