This Communist is Not Convertible!Fidel Castro is a Cuban revolutionary leader who overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Castro served as prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and as president of the government and First Secretary of the Commnunist Party from 1976 to February 2008, when he resigned from active service in the government due to failing health.
Castro was born to a wealthy family of farmers. He is the son of Angel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz Gonzalez, who became his cook after he took control of Cuba. He has two brothers: Ramon and Raul, who was the Cuban minister of defense. He has four sisters, including Juanita, who lives in the United States.
Castro was educated in private, Roman Catholic schools. In late 1945, he entered law school at the University of Havana, and there became deeply involved in the volatile politics of Cuba during that time.
Castro is a Marxist revolutionary who led Cuba for almost 50 years. He first tried to overthrow Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista in 1953. After being imprisoned and than exiled to Mexico, he returned to Cuba with a plan to lead a revolution and overthrew Batista in 1959, in partnership with revolutionary Ernest "Che" Guevera.
As the leader of Cuba, he created the first Communist Party-led state in the Western hemisphere. A repressive dictator, he held many titles including the supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.
Although raised a Roman Catholic as a child, Castro did not practice and has stated that "I have never been a believer." Pope John XXIII excommunicated Castro in 1962 on the basis of a 1949 decree by Pope Pius XII forbidding Catholics from supporting Communist governments.
At the beginning of 2008, Fidel handed power to his brother Raul Castro, who had long served as the Cuban defense minister. The Cuban National Assembly elected Raul Castro President of Cuba on February 24, 2008.
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