Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro (1926), Cuban statesman and socialist revolutionary. As a boy Castro threatened to burn down the family home unless his parents sent him to school. As a result he graduated in law in 1950. He subsequently organized a campaign against the Batista dictatorship, the 26th of July Movement, and following an unsuccessful revolt (1956) escaped to the mountains with his 11 surviving supporters, including Che Guevara. The movement gradually regained strength until in 1959, with an army of 5,000, he was able to overthrow Batista. Castro then became premier and adopted a radical socialist policy. Despite fierce antagonism from the US in the 1960’s and afterwards he remained in power. However, the collapse of communism in the late 1980’s has left his regime increasingly isolated.
