Cuba's Fidel Castro, who defied U.S. for 50 years, has died By ASSOCIATED PRESS 11/26/16 12:44 AM EST
HAVANA — Former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule, has died at age 90.
Castro's reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to his younger brother Raul, who announced his death late Friday on state television.
Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista, exile in Mexico and a disastrous start to his rebellion before triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32, the youngest leader in Latin America. For decades, he served as an inspiration and source of support to revolutionaries from Latin America to Africa.
His commitment to socialism was unwavering, though his power finally began to fade in mid-2006 when a gastrointestinal ailment forced him to hand over the presidency to Raul in 2008, provisionally at first and then permanently. His defiant image lingered long after he gave up his trademark Cohiba cigars for health reasons and his tall frame grew stooped.
"Socialism or death" remained Castro's rallying cry even as Western-style democracy swept the globe and other communist regimes in China and Vietnam embraced capitalism, leaving this island of 11 million people an economically crippled Marxist curiosity.
He survived long enough to see Raul Castro negotiate an opening with U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 17, 2014, when Washington and Havana announced they would move to restore diplomatic ties for the first time since they were severed in 1961. He cautiously blessed the historic deal with his lifelong enemy in a letter published after a month-long silence.
Fidel Castro Ruz was born Aug. 13, 1926, in eastern Cuba's sugar country, where his Spanish immigrant father worked first recruiting labor for U.S. sugar companies and later built up a prosperous plantation of his own.
Castro attended Jesuit schools, then the University of Havana, where he received law and social science degrees. His life as a rebel began in 1953 with a reckless attack on the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. Most of his comrades were killed and Fidel and his brother Raul went to prison.
Fidel turned his trial defense into a manifesto that he smuggled out of jail, famously declaring, "History will absolve me."
Freed under a pardon, Castro fled to Mexico and organized a rebel band that returned in 1956, sailing across the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba on a yacht named Granma. After losing most of his group in a bungled landing, he rallied support in Cuba's eastern Sierra Maestra mountains.
Three years later, tens of thousands spilled into the streets of Havana to celebrate Batista's downfall and catch a glimpse of Castro as his rebel caravan arrived in the capital on Jan. 8, 1959.
The U.S. was among the first to formally recognize his government, cautiously trusting Castro's early assurances he merely wanted to restore democracy, not install socialism.
Nov 26, 2016 12:34 AM CST Cuba's Fidel Castro Dies
RumplesManchester, Greater Manchester, England UK592 Posts
RumplesManchester, Greater Manchester, England UK592 posts
It beats living in the Dominican Republic or another one of these so-called democracies under the influence of America. Apart from Jamaica because they dealt with us in Britain and not you.
And I would say that anything socialisty works better on an island due to the strong border which is the sea and the close-knit atmosphere this tight border create. Also helps if that island is a hedonistic paradise not looking to be first in the world at anything. RIP Castro.
Rumples: It beats living in the Dominican Republic or another one of these so-called democracies under the influence of America. Apart from Jamaica because they dealt with us in Britain and not you.
And I would say that anything socialisty works better on an island due to the strong border which is the sea and the close-knit atmosphere this tight border create. Also helps if that island is a hedonistic paradise not looking to be first in the world at anything. RIP Castro.
Hope it's not for this island the socialists Here are a bunch of losers, great leader Though, don't make them like that anymore
Please refrain from reading this until you have thoroughly digested your lunch—or whatever meal you may have recently eaten before coming across this post. You are at serious risk of upchucking if you peruse this material with anything in your stomach.
The American media gave a great, big, wet, lip-smacking goodbye kiss to the brutal dictator Fidel Castro, leaving no doubt of their man love for a murdering communist fanatic.
Do they realize that, if they lived in Cuba and tried to criticize the government, their asses would be thrown in jail?
lifeisadreamMexi Go, Mexico State Mexico16,713 posts
Sista Callie I am not a fan of Fidel Castro because of the lack of liberty for the Cubans. Some people still think that Fidel lived like every Cuba, not true. Fidel had a better life and with some excess way above the average people of Cuba just like all leaders do in any political regimen, being the left not exception.
(On the funny side)
Fidel Castro had survived the terms of many USA's presidents:
Eisenhower Kennedy Nixon Ford Carter Regan Bush Clinton GW Bush Obama
But Fidel could not resist 15 days of elect president Trump
lifeisadream: Sista Callie I am not a fan of Fidel Castro because of the lack of liberty for the Cubans. Some people still think that Fidel lived like every Cuba, not true. Fidel had a better life and with some excess way above the average people of Cuba just like all leaders do in any political regimen, being the left not exception.
(On the funny side)
Fidel Castro had survived the terms of many USA's presidents:
Eisenhower Kennedy Nixon Ford Carter Regan Bush Clinton GW Bush Obama
But Fidel could not resist 15 days of elect president Trump
lifeisadreamMexi Go, Mexico State Mexico16,713 posts
MnanahEireann: Quote:
Fidel Castro: "I will not die until America is destroyed.
News: Trump is going to be President.
Fidel Castro: "Well, then......"
For the record: Not that I do agree or even think that America will be destroyed yet it has to be reinvented because a system that place profit over people works for some time for the people in the elites and in the establishment until the masses get informed/educated
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By ASSOCIATED PRESS 11/26/16 12:44 AM EST
HAVANA — Former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule, has died at age 90.
Castro's reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to his younger brother Raul, who announced his death late Friday on state television.
Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista, exile in Mexico and a disastrous start to his rebellion before triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32, the youngest leader in Latin America. For decades, he served as an inspiration and source of support to revolutionaries from Latin America to Africa.
His commitment to socialism was unwavering, though his power finally began to fade in mid-2006 when a gastrointestinal ailment forced him to hand over the presidency to Raul in 2008, provisionally at first and then permanently. His defiant image lingered long after he gave up his trademark Cohiba cigars for health reasons and his tall frame grew stooped.
"Socialism or death" remained Castro's rallying cry even as Western-style democracy swept the globe and other communist regimes in China and Vietnam embraced capitalism, leaving this island of 11 million people an economically crippled Marxist curiosity.
He survived long enough to see Raul Castro negotiate an opening with U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 17, 2014, when Washington and Havana announced they would move to restore diplomatic ties for the first time since they were severed in 1961. He cautiously blessed the historic deal with his lifelong enemy in a letter published after a month-long silence.
Fidel Castro Ruz was born Aug. 13, 1926, in eastern Cuba's sugar country, where his Spanish immigrant father worked first recruiting labor for U.S. sugar companies and later built up a prosperous plantation of his own.
Castro attended Jesuit schools, then the University of Havana, where he received law and social science degrees. His life as a rebel began in 1953 with a reckless attack on the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. Most of his comrades were killed and Fidel and his brother Raul went to prison.
Fidel turned his trial defense into a manifesto that he smuggled out of jail, famously declaring, "History will absolve me."
Freed under a pardon, Castro fled to Mexico and organized a rebel band that returned in 1956, sailing across the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba on a yacht named Granma. After losing most of his group in a bungled landing, he rallied support in Cuba's eastern Sierra Maestra mountains.
Three years later, tens of thousands spilled into the streets of Havana to celebrate Batista's downfall and catch a glimpse of Castro as his rebel caravan arrived in the capital on Jan. 8, 1959.
The U.S. was among the first to formally recognize his government, cautiously trusting Castro's early assurances he merely wanted to restore democracy, not install socialism.
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