Fidel Castro !

The man who presided as president of the tiny island of Cuba for nearly fifty years and established a Communist state on America's doorstep is dead at ninety.   He was both reviled and admired across the world and he certainly left his mark on history

Cuba had been part of the mighty Spanish  empire and towards the end of the nineteenth century that empire was in serious disarray.  The Spanish/American war of 1898 was a Spanish defeat and both Cuba and the Philippines came under American control.   It was not American policy to annex countries won in wars and so both were ruled by American proxy, with dictators installed in office.  Cuba became an American playground with gambling casinos under the control of criminal interests.

The Castro name came to world prominence on New Years eve 1959 when Fidel Castro led a revolutionary army out of the hills and into Havana and deposed dictator Fulgencio Batista.   He installed a Communist regime and swept away all forms of capitalism.   US efforts to unseat him were unrelenting and led to the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 which was a serious embarrassment to President John Kennedy.  Castro was to go on and outlast nine US presidents.

The world came close to nuclear war in 1962.  Fidel Castro conspired with Russian leader Nikita Kruschev to secretly install missile batteries on Cuba and this led to a sea embargo by the US navy.  For thirteen days the world held its breathe - and then Kruschev capitulated and the missiles were removed.

Cuba under the green fatigue clad, cigar smoking Castro was an enigma.  Health and education were free of charge to all citizens, but no private enterprise was allowed and citizens were paid in a currency that had no value outside the island.   Very quickly Cubans began to put to sea in boats, trying to cross the Florida strait and migrate to America.  Cuba became a virtual prison and America gained a vast number of new citizens with intense anti Castro feelings.

The United States was openly hostile to Cuba and it is rumoured that the CIA entertained plans to assassinate Castro.  He was famous for the length of his speeches and set a record in 1960 when he addressed the United Nations in New York for four hours and twenty-nine minutes.   The Cuban economy was propped up by Russia and when the Soviet Union collapsed the island was no longer commercially viable and slipped into abject poverty.  Fidel Castro's health declined and in 2006 he relinquished control in favour of his brother Raul.

The long cold war between America and Cuba eased in 2012 when President Obama and Raul Castro held face to face meetings and since then diplomatic relations have been reestablished.  Cuban is slowly abandoning the rigours of Communism and Americans will soon be free to openly visit the island.

Fidel Castro was admired by many people with leftish views.  He claimed that Communist Cuba was a utopia, but the fact that he had to imprison those caught trying to escape the island was a common theme of other Communist states scattered across the world.   Utopia does not seem to be an apt description of those forced to endure a regime they are powerless to change.

Castro was certainly a larger than life figure and he will be prominently recorded in the history account of the twentieth century.