Fidel Castro 1926-2016
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who led a rebellion against a dictator in his island nation, only to embrace the tenets of a dictatorship while evoking Soviet-style Communism during his half-century rule, died on Friday, November 25, 2016. He was 90.
Take a look at the life of the Cuban revolutionary and longtime Communist leader.
Pictured: Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro exhales cigar smoke during a March 1985 interview at his presidential palace in Havana.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro was born Aug. 13, 1926, in Mayari to Angel Castro y Argiz, a sugarcane planter, and Lina Ruz Gonzalez, a homemaker.
Fidel (pictured, second right) eats a lollipop in this 1940 photo taken in a Catholic school he attended in Santiago, Cuba.
Fidel Castro
Even in his high school and college days, Castro was politically-minded. This photograph, taken from his 1945 high school yearbook, shows him making a speech on state intervention in education. At the University of Havana, where he sought unsuccessfully to become president of the federation of university students, Castro was largely regarded as a country boy who shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Fidel Castro
On July 26, 1953, Castro led a revolt against the dictator Fulgencio Batista when he attacked the Moncada army barracks with 165 men and women. The attack failed and Castro was arrested.
Fidel Castro
A file picture taken July 1953 shows Fidel Castro (2nd left) as he gives his deposition to Colonel Chabiano, military chief of the Moncada Garrison; Major Jose Izquierdo, Chief of Police; Lieutanant Sama; and Lavastida, Head of the Regimental Intelligence Service (SIR) of Santiago de Cuba, at the Vivac in Santiago de Cuba, July 1953.
Later the same year at his trial, Castro makes a historic statement, ending with the phrase, "History will absolve me." He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was released two years later.
Fidel Castro
A 1956 file photo shows Fidel Castro practicing shooting in Mexico, during preparations for the 1956 uprising against Batista. Castro was one of 82 men (including Fidel's brother, Raul, and Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara) who disembarked on the yacht Granma for eastern Cuba, where they launched a guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra.
Fidel Castro
The Castro brothers, Che Guevara, and a handful of men escaped an ambush by Batista's army upon their landing, and began their revolutionary campaign from the mountains of Cuba. Batista's government was toppled, and its leader fled the country on January 1, 1959. Fidel Castro assumed the position of Cuban Prime Minister.
Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary leaders Camilo Cienfuegos (left) and Fidel Castro, surrounded by the members of the leftist guerrilla movement "26th of July Movement," enter Havana January 8, 1959, after their victory over the forces of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Fidel Castro
U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro leave Nixon's office April 19, 1959, after a two-hour-and-20-minute chat behind closed doors. The meeting had been listed on Castro's program as a 15-minute visit. In answer to a question, Castro said the meeting had been "very friendly."
Fidel Castro
Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro is escorted by Massachusetts State Police as he walks to a plane at Logan Airport in Boston, for a flight to Montreal, Canada, on April 26, 1959. The Cuban leader, who came to Boston to speak at the Harvard Law School forum, was under heavy police guard during his visit as authorities acted on an FBI tip of a possible assassination attempt.
Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, left, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev hug at the United Nations in late 1960.
Fidel Castro
Ernest Hemingway and Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro exchange pleasantries at the seaside after Castro won the individual championship in the annual Hemingway Anglers Tournament on May 15, 1960. Castro caught five fish weighing 286 pounds to take the crown. Hemingway had a bad day, failing to land any.
Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, lower right, sits inside a tank near Playa Giron, Cuba, during the Bay of Pigs invasion, in this April 17, 1961 photo provided by Granma, the Cuban government newspaper. About 1,500 Cuban exiles, supported by the CIA, landed in Cuba in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on April 17, 1961 with the purpose of sparking a popular uprising and ousting the government of Castro.
Fidel Castro
Bare-chested Fidel Castro, Premier of Cuba, takes up a paddle against U.S. students in a table tennis contest at Varadaro, Cuba, August 30, 1963.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro is shown going down a toboggan in the Kremlin garden in Moscow during his official visit to the Soviet Union, January 20, 1964.
Fidel Castro
A photo from the 1960s of Cuban President Fidel Castro during a meeting with Argentine guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara meet on June 1, 1967.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro (left) greets Chilean President Salvador Allende in Santiago, upon his arrival for a ten-day official visit to Chile, November 10, 1971.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and Chairman of the State Council and Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, is pictured upon his arrival at Moscow's airport in April 1977, where he was welcomed by (from left) Nikolai Podgorny, Leonid Brezhnev, Andrei Gromyko, and Alexey Kosygin.
Fidel Castro
Iraqi Vice President Saddam Hussein (center) stands with Cuban President Fidel Castro (left) and Cuban Defense Minister General Raul Castro, January 30, 1979 in Havana.
Fidel Castro
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (left), Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi (center), and Cuban President Fidel Castro are pictured during the non-aligned countries summit, September 4, 1986 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro (right) decorates Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, June 28, 1988 in Havana.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro, with guides and security agents, walks the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China December 1, 1995, during his nine-day visit to China.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro, flanked by Salvadoran President Armando Calderon Sol (left) and Colombian President Andres Pastrana (right), participates October 17, 1996, in an induction ceremony by the Port Wine Fraternity for the 19 heads of state at the eighth Ibero American summit at the Bolsa Palace in Porto, Portugal.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro talks to Pope John Paul II during the presentation of their delegations at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, Cuba Thursday, Jan. 22, 1998. The pope was on a historic five-day visit to the Communist nation.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro peers through the bars of President Nelson Mandela's former cell on Robben Island near Cape Town September 4, 1998. The Cuban President was on a two-day official visit to the country, following his attendance at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit. Castro - once reviled by South Africa's apartheid leaders - was given a rousing welcome by President Mandela.
Fidel Castro
Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, Cuban President Fidel Castro, and Bud Selig, right, commissioner of Major League Baseball watch the game between the Orioles and the Cuban national team in Havana, Cuba Sunday, March 28, 1999. The Orioles won 3-2 in 11 innings.
Fidel Castro
In this September 4, 1999 file photo, Cuban President Fidel Castro discusses his request to the president of the International Olympic Committee in Havana for an investigation into the treatment of certain Cuban athletes.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro addresses hundreds of thousands of people at Revolution Square in Havana May 1, 2000.
Fidel Castro
Cuban President Fidel Castro covers the timing lights before beginning his address to the United Nations Millennium Summit September 6, 2000.
Fidel Castro
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, left, and Cuban President Fidel Castro leave the church following funeral services for former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000 at the Nortre-Dame Basilica in Montreal.
Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, left, and South African President Thabo Mbeki talk to Elian Gonzales during a visit at his school in Cardenas, Cuba, 90 miles east of Havana, Wednesday, March 28, 2001. Gonzalez was catapulted to fame during the international custody battle between his father in Cuba and relatives in Florida after Elian was rescued off the Florida coast in 1999.
Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro is shown moments before he appeared to faint while delivering a speech during a rally of tens of thousands Saturday, June 23, 2001, in Cotorro, near Havana, Cuba. He returned to the podium within a few minutes to assure his audience that he was fine, but said he needed some rest. The foreign minister indicated that the leader recently had kept a busy schedule.
Fidel Castro
A screen grab from Cuban television of an interview broadcast January 30, 2007 between Cuban President Fidel Castro and his friend Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (not pictured).
Fidel Castro
Picture releases by Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde, January 30, 2007, shows Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez.
Fidel Castro
In this Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, photo taken and released Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009, by Cuba's newspaper Juventud Rebelde, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro, right, and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa meet in Havana.
Fidel Castro
In this photo released on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, by the Cuban official newspaper Granma, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro gestures during a meeting with Venezuelan students in Havana, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009.
Fidel Castro
In this image released on Saturday July 10, 2010 by the state media Cubadebate website, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, right, visits the National Center for Scientific Investigation in Havana on July 7, 2010. Castro had not been photographed in public since falling seriously ill in July 2006.
Fidel Castro
In this photo released on Monday, July 12, 2010 by the state media Cubadebate website, Cuban leader Fidel Castro gestures during an interview with Cubavision in Havana, during the "Mesa Redonda" or "Round Table," a daily Cuban talk show on current events.
Fidel Castro
Cuban former President Fidel Castro gives a speech at Havana University, Sept. 3, 2010. Castro talked to the students about the possibility of a nuclear war.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro makes a surprise appearance at the 6th Communist Party Congress in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday April 19, 2011. Raul Castro, right, was named first secretary of Cuba's Communist Party on Tuesday, with his brother Fidel not included in the leadership for the first time since the party's creation 46 years ago. Despite raising hopes during the gathering that a new generation of leaders was poised to take up important positions, Raul announced that Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, an 80-year-old longtime confidante, would be his No. 2.
Fidel Castro
In this photo released Jan. 12, 2012 by Cuba's presidency via Cubadebate, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, meets Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana, Jan. 11, 2012. An unidentified translator sits at center.
Fidel Castro
In this Feb. 10, 2012 file photo released by the state media website Cubadebate, Cuba's leader Fidel Castro speaks during a meeting with intellectuals and writers at the International Book Fair in Havana, Cuba.
Fidel Castro
In this March 28, 2012 file photo made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI meets with Fidel Castro in Havana.
Fidel Castro
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro and President of Cuba's University Students Federation, Randy Perdomo, look at a newspaper during a meeting in Havana in this picture provided by Cubadebate.
Photographs of the 88-year-old former leader appeared in official media on February 2, 2015 for the first time since August. The pictures of Castro with Perdomo were taken on January 23, 2015 according to Perdomo's account.
Fidel Castro
Photographer Alex Castro, son of Cuba's former President Fidel Castro, looks at images of his father and his uncle, Cuba's current President Raul Castro, during the opening of the exhibition "Fidel" in Havana, Cuba, August 12, 2016. August 13 marked the 90th birthday of the revolutionary leader.
Fidel Castro
A portrait, dated July 22, 1970, of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
President Raul Castro revealed his older brother’s death on state television. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: “Toward victory, always!”