Cuban leader Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Spanish: born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban political leader and former communist revolutionary. As the primary leader of the Cuban Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2006. In 2006, he was succeeded by his younger brother, Raْl Castro, who is the current President of the Councils of State and Ministers, and who previously served under Fidel as Minister of Defence from 1959 to 2008.


While studying law at the University of Havana, he began his political career and became a recognized figure in Cuban politics. His political career continued with nationalist critiques of the president, Fulgencio Batista, and of the United States' political and corporate influence in Cuba. He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of the authorities. He eventually led the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated, and later released. He then traveled to Mexico to organize and train for an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Batista's government, which began in December 1956.


Castro subsequently came to power as a result of the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the US-backed[6] dictatorship of Batista, and shortly thereafter became Prime Minister of Cuba. In 1965 he became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. In 1976 he became President of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers. He also held the supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.


Following intestinal surgery from an undisclosed digestive illness believed to have been diverticulitis, Castro transferred his responsibilities to the First Vice-President, his younger brother Raْl Castro, on July 31, 2006. On February 19, 2008, five days before his mandate was to expire, he announced he would neither seek nor accept a new term as either president or commander-in-chief. On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly elected Raْl Castro to succeed him as the President of Cuba. Castro is currently most active in commenting on world affairs, commonly in the form of his regularly published Reflections, articles offering his view on world events from US foreign policy to global warming.

Childhood and education 




Fidel Alejandro Vittore Castro Ruz was born on a sugar plantation in Birلn, near Mayarي, in the modern-day province of Holguيn – then a part of the now-defunct Oriente Province. He was the third child born to ءngel Castro y Argiz, a Galician immigrant from the impoverished northwest of Spain who became relatively prosperous through work in the sugar industry and successful investing.


His mother, Lina Ruz Gonzلlez (September 23, 1903 – August 6, 1963. was a household servant. ءngel Castro was married to another woman, Maria Luisa Argota, until Fidel was 15, and thus Fidel as a child had to deal both with his illegitimacy and the challenge of being raised in various foster homes away from his father's house.


Castro has two brothers, Ramَn and Raْl, and four sisters, Angelita, Juanita, Enma, and Agustina, all of whom were born out of wedlock. He also has two half siblings, Lidia and Pedro Emilio who were raised by ءngel Castro's first wife. His maternal grandparents were canarian people. Fidel was not baptized until he was 8, also very uncommon, bringing embarrassment and ridicule from other children.ءngel Castro finally dissolved his first marriage when Fidel was 15 and married Fidel’s mother. Castro was formally recognized by his father when he was 17, when his surname was legally changed to Castro from Ruz, his mother’s name.


Although accounts of his education differ, most sources agree that he was an intellectually gifted student, more interested in sports than in academics, and spent many years in private Catholic boarding schools, finishing high school at El Colegio de Belén, a Jesuit school in Havana in 1945. While at Belén, Castro pitched on the school's baseball team. There are persistent rumors that Castro was scouted for various U.S. baseball teams, but there is no evidence that this ever actually happened. 


Family 


By his first wife Mirta Dيaz-Balart, whom he married on October 11, 1948, Castro has a son named Fidel ءngel "Fidelito" Castro Dيaz-Balart, born on September 1, 1949. Dيaz-Balart and Castro were divorced in 1955, and she remarried Emilio Nٌْez Blanco. After a spell in Madrid, Dيaz-Balart reportedly returned to Havana to live with Fidelito and his family. Fidelito grew up in Cuba; for a time, he ran Cuba's atomic-energy commission before being removed from the post by his father. Dيaz-Balart's nephews are Republican U.S. Congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, vocal critics of the Castro government.[citation needed]


Fidel has five other sons by his second wife, Dalia Soto del Valle: Antonio, Alejandro, Alexis, Alexander "Alex" and ءngel Castro Soto del Valle.


While Fidel was married to Mirta, he had an affair with Natalia "Naty" Revuelta Clews, born in Havana in 1925 and married to Orlando Fernلndez, resulting in a daughter named Alina Fernلndez-Revuelta. Alina left Cuba in 1993, disguised as a Spanish tourist, and sought asylum in the United States. She has been a vocal critic of her father's policies.[citation needed] Alina was assisted by Elena Diaz-Verson Amos, wife of AFLAC founder John Amos. Alina lived with Elena in Columbus, Georgia, for several years.


By an unnamed woman he had another son, Jorge ءngel Castro. Fidel has another daughter, Francisca Pupo (born 1953) the result of a one night affair. Pupo and her husband now live in Miami.


His sister Juanita Castro has been living in the United States since the early 1960s. When she went into exile, she said "I cannot longer remain indifferent to what is happening in my country. My brothers Fidel and Raْl have made it an enormous prison surrounded by water. The people are nailed to a cross of torment imposed by international Communism.







Castro claims Osama bin Laden is a CIA agent


London, Aug 28 : Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has claimed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is a CIA agent, who was always summoned whenever former US President George W Bush needed to scare the world.


He claimed that he came to know about it after reading documents posted in ‘WikiLeaks’.


He also alleged that Bin Laden was working for the White House