Castro: Time to take off the boots

HAVANA – After a half century of defying the United States and making the world think he would die with his boots on, iconic communist leader Fidel Castro yesterday announced the end of his era at Cuba’s helm.

A guerrilla revolutionary and great survivor, Castro dodged all his enemies could throw at him in almost 50 years in power, including assassination plots, a US-backed invasion bid, and a punishing US trade embargo. Famed for his olive fatigues, straggly beard and the cigars he reluctantly gave up for his health, Castro kept a tight clamp on dissent at home while defining himself abroad with his defiance of Washington.But the Cuban leader, who once said he would never retire from politics, has finally announced that he will not return as president or commander of the armed forces, 19 months after he was stricken with illness that forced him into seclusion.Born on August 13 1926 to a prosperous Galician immigrant landowner and a Cuban mother of humble origins, Castro was a baseball prospect who dreamed of a golden future playing in the US big leagues.But his young man’s dreams evolved not in sports but in politics, and he went on to form the guerrilla opposition to the US-backed government of Fulgencio Batista, who seized power in a 1952 coup.That involvement netted the young Castro two years in jail, and he subsequently went into exile to prepare the revolt he and his followers launched on December 2 1956 when they landed in southeastern Cuba on the ship Granma.Twenty-five months later, against great odds, they ousted Batista and Castro was named prime minister.Once in undisputed power, Castro, a Jesuit-schooled lawyer, aligned himself with the Soviet Union and the East Bloc, which bankrolled his communism until the Soviet bloc’s own collapse in 1989.Castro clashed with 10 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to George W Bush, each seeking to pressure his regime over the decades following his revolution, which closed a long era of Washington’s dominance over Cuba dating to the 1898 Spanish-American War.His liaison with the Soviet Union took the world to the nerve-jarring edge of nuclear war in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, sparked when Moscow sought to position nuclear-tipped rockets on the island just 144 kilometres from Florida.After a tense superpower stand-off, the world pulled back from the abyss as Moscow agreed to keep the missiles off Cuban soil.Castro strutted to the world stage as a communist icon when the Cold War was at its height.He sent 15 000 soldiers to help Soviet-backed troops in Angola in 1975 and dispatched forces to Ethiopia in 1977.The United States has variously been infuriated, embarrassed and alarmed at Castro’s actions, and intensely frustrated by his survival despite the economic embargo, in full force since 1962, that Washington hoped would spark rebellion.The tempestuous Cuban president repeatedly pinned the blame for Cuba’s economic hardship on the embargo.After the end of Soviet bloc aid in 1989 nearly collapsed the economy, Castro allowed more international tourism and slight economic reform on the Caribbean’s largest island.But as even China loosened economic reins, Havana backtracked and held tight to the centralised economic model.Then, a new ally, Hugo Chavez, president of oil-rich Venezuela and another foe of Washington, began bankrolling Castro’s regime.Known widely among Cubans as simply ‘Fidel’ or ‘El Comandante’, Castro broke off diplomatic ties with the United States in 1961 and expropriated US companies’ assets totalling more than one billion dollars.In April 1961 he weathered an invasion attempt by some 1 500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs.But the island suffered from an exodus of people and capital abroad, mainly to Florida where a large anti-Castro movement thrives.Castro kept his private life largely private, but in recent years, more details became public.In 1948, he married Mirta Diaz-Balart, who gave birth to Castro’s first son, Fidelito.The couple later divorced.In 1952, Castro met Naty Revuelta, a socialite married to a doctor, and they had a daughter, Alina, in 1956.He met Celia Sanchez, said to have been his main life partner, in 1957 and remained with her until her death in 1980.In the 1980s, Castro reportedly married Dalia Soto del Valle, with whom he had five children: Angel, Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis and Alex.- Nampa-AFPFamed for his olive fatigues, straggly beard and the cigars he reluctantly gave up for his health, Castro kept a tight clamp on dissent at home while defining himself abroad with his defiance of Washington.But the Cuban leader, who once said he would never retire from politics, has finally announced that he will not return as president or commander of the armed forces, 19 months after he was stricken with illness that forced him into seclusion.Born on August 13 1926 to a prosperous Galician immigrant landowner and a Cuban mother of humble origins, Castro was a baseball prospect who dreamed of a golden future playing in the US big leagues.But his young man’s dreams evolved not in sports but in politics, and he went on to form the guerrilla opposition to the US-backed government of Fulgencio Batista, who seized power in a 1952 coup.That involvement netted the young Castro two years in jail, and he subsequently went into exile to prepare the revolt he and his followers launched on December 2 1956 when they landed in southeastern Cuba on the ship Granma.Twenty-five months later, against great odds, they ousted Batista and Castro was named prime minister.Once in undisputed power, Castro, a Jesuit-schooled lawyer, aligned himself with the Soviet Union and the East Bloc, which bankrolled his communism until the Soviet bloc’s own collapse in 1989.Castro clashed with 10 US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to George W Bush, each seeking to pressure his regime over the decades following his revolution, which closed a long era of Washington’s dominance over Cuba dating to the 1898 Spanish-American War.His liaison with the Soviet Union took the world to the nerve-jarring edge of nuclear war in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, sparked when Moscow sought to position nuclear-tipped rockets on the island just 144 kilometres from Florida.After a tense superpower stand-off, the world pulled back from the abyss as Moscow agreed to keep the missiles off Cuban soil.Castro strutted to the world stage as a communist icon when the Cold War was at its height.He sent 15 000 soldiers to help Soviet-backed troops in Angola in 1975 and dispatched forces to Ethiopia in 1977.The United States has variously been infuriated, embarrassed and alarmed at Castro’s actions, and intensely frustrated by his survival despite the economic embargo, in full force since 1962, that Washington hoped would spark rebellion.The tempestuous Cuban president repeatedly pinned the blame for Cuba’s economic hardship on the embargo.After the end of Soviet bloc aid in 1989 nearly collapsed the economy, Castro allowed more international tourism and slight economic reform on the Caribbean’s largest island.But as even China loosened economic reins, Havana backtracked and held tight to the centralised economic model.Then, a new ally, Hugo Chavez, president of oil-rich Venezuela and another foe of Washington, began bankrolling Castro’s regime.Known widely among Cubans as simply ‘Fidel’ or ‘El Comandante’, Castro broke off diplomatic ties with the United States in 1961 and expropriated US companies’ assets totalling more than one billion dollars.In April 1961 he weathered an invasion attempt by some 1 500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs.But the island suffered from an exodus of people and capital abroad, mainly to Florida where a large anti-Castro movement thrives.Castro kept his private life largely private, but in recent years, more details became public.In 1948, he married Mirta Diaz-Balart, who gave birth to Castro’s first son, Fidelito.The couple later divorced.In 1952, Castro met Naty Revuelta, a socialite married to a doctor, and they had a daughter, Alina, in 1956.He met Celia Sanchez, said to have been his main life partner, in 1957 and remained with her until her death in 1980.In the 1980s, Castro reportedly married Dalia Soto del Valle, with whom he had five children: Angel, Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis and Alex.- Nampa-AFP

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