Fidel Castro: The Communist Dictator of Cuba

Fidel Castro was a communist leader of Cuba. He initiated military relations with the Soviet Union and this resulted in distant relations with the United States. He was the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 until 1976. From 1976 to 2008, he was the president of Cuba. Castro believed in more of a dictatorship and ruled as such He ended up killing thousands of people who were trying to escape his ruling. He is one of the most well-known communist leaders.  

Castro was born on August 13, 1926 in a part of Eastern Cuba. His father owned a successful sugar plantation. As life continued, Castro attended a boarding school. He was intellectually gifted but preferred sports over his studies. In 1945, he graduated from high school and entered law school.

In law school, he focused on politics such as Cuban nationalism. He married Mirta Diaz Balart, a girl who came from a very wealthy family. This new found wealth exposed Fidel to new things, including the writings of Karl Marx. Castro then decided to run for Cuban congress. However, a group overthrew the government and left Castro with very little money to do anything, especially not enough money to keep his family together. Fidel and a group of others got together and went and attacked the military barracks, attempting to overthrow the current dictator, and failed. This resulted in 15 years of prison. After the group was released, they continued on with their attempt at overthrowing the government. Eventually these efforts became successful and they overthrew the government in 1959. The government was changed quickly and had new leaders. The current prime minister at the time resigned and Castro took his place. Eventually, Cuba made relations with the Soviet Union and the relationship with the United States dissolved. Fidel Castro then decided to resign from leadership and continued on with his life until his death on November 25, 2016.  

Fidel was a communist leader but had not always believed in communism. He went to Catholic schools and practiced that way. The story begins with his father being a wealthier man, meaning upper class, and his mom was a maid and was more lower class. His father did not accept him as his own son until Fidel turned 17. This was because he was ashamed of Fidel's mother and her class rank. This caused Fidel the original feeling of self injustice because of the class systems. The communism that Castro believed in was more socialist/soviet style and was called Marxist-Leninist. He changed the country of Cuba from a Capitalist country to a Socialist country because he believed Capitalism was the center of poverty. He believed communism allowed the fair distribution of wealth to all citizens of Cuba. This can tie back to his early childhood when he had the struggle of his parents and their class system. This made him have the belief of social equality among all.  

Fidel Castro made many changes as a new communist leader.

These changes were to try and better Cuba. One of these changes was making the government more open and no longer private. This helped Fidel reach his goals because it allowed more freedom for everyone and have a better system for education and other necessities. The main goal he had before he was made ruler was he wanted to make these normal Cuban people have a better life and system than it was with the past ruler, Batista. To explain the change, the more public and open government gave the people more information and let them have a bigger part in their society by being able to contribute to decisions and elections. Fidel had announced that now that the government is letting others involved, there would be public elections that the citizens would be allowed to vote in. This made the citizens have more freedom, like his goal wanted them to have.  

The change to communism for Cuba was a big change that has affected the way Cuban citizens live now. These people went from a regular Capitalist country to a Socialist Communist country by just one person. This person being Fidel Castro, a dictator who died at the age of 90 in 2016. He did not agree with how the government was run so he overthrew it with many others. Fidel took over the Cuban government and allowed others most of the freedoms that they wanted. He is known as one of the greatest communist rulers to

date.