{UAH} Commandante Fidel

Fidel Castro was one of the most polemical political personalities of the twentieth century. His complex historical legacy will be admired by some and despised by others. The son of an affluent Galician landowner who settled in Cuba's Oriente province, Fidel spent most of his adult life combating bourgeois society.

The young lawyer launched a guerrilla movement to overthrow Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship (1952–58) in Cuba. With the assassination of other leaders of the urban insurrection (such as José Antonio Echeverría and Frank País), Fidel became the undisputed head of the Cuban Revolution. He came to power in 1959 after the collapse of the Batista regime.

He later became Prime Minister, President, Commander in Chief, and First Secretary of Cuba's Community Party, controlling the most powerful positions on the island for almost five decades. He ruled Cuba with an iron fist until 2006, when he temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raúl, due to an acute gastrointestinal disease that diminished his physical and mental abilities.

Fidel's charismatic leadership—characterized by his shrewdness, eloquence, audacity, energy and physical strength—captivated millions of followers in Cuba and elsewhere. A hypnotic and telegenic public speaker who could seduce multitudes, Fidel knew how to take advantage of the mass media to convey his messages. At the same time, impulsiveness, a capacity for improvisation, demagogy and narcissism were legendary traits of the Maximum Leader.

In his long-winded speeches, Fidel identified himself with "the wretched of the earth," to use José Martí's famous phrase, especially with peasants and workers, and elaborated a utopian vision of social justice, equality and solidarity. He defended tooth and nail the national sovereignty of Cuba and other developing countries against foreign intervention, particularly from the United States. The role of David against Goliath earned him numerous sympathizers in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

Fidel constantly advocated for public access to education, health, sports and culture, often considered major achievements of the Cuban Revolution. In the early 196os, he (prematurely) declared the end of racial discrimination on the island and later dubbed Cuba an "Afro-Latin American" country. He catapulted the island to the world stage, converting it into a much more influential political actor than would correspond to its size and population.

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*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.

 

 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987

 *"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable"**…  *J.F Kennedy

 

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