Cuban leader FIDEL CASTRO
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (American Spanish: [fiˈðel aleˈxandɾo ˈkastɾo ˈrus]; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban communist revolutionary politician, a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist. Castro governed the Republic of Cuba as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011, Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers from 1976 to 2008. Castro also served as the Commander-in-chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state, while industry and business were nationalized and state socialist policies were implemented throughout society. Born in Birán, Oriente as the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist 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.
Size: 5334px × 7541px
Location: Cuba
Photo credit: © American Photo Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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Keywords: 1961, 1962, 1963, army, atom, atomic, attack, bay, bomb, castro, cigar, cold, communist, crisis, cuba, cuban, curtain, fatigues, fidel, iron, jfk, kennedy, khrushchev, leader, military, missile, moscow, nikita, nuclear, pigs, president, revolt, revolutionary, russia, russian, sergeyevich, socialism, socialist, soviet, union, war, weapon
