Was Fidel Castro An Effective Leader

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Fidel Castro, who ruled Cuba for 49 years from 1959-2008, was an extremely controversial leader who transformed Cuba into a communist state. In that time he has created staunch supporters among his people, along with major opposition, including wealthy Cubans and the United States. He successfully consolidated power over those 49 years and beyond, as he passed on power to his brother after leaving the presidency. However, his tenure also stenched of human rights abuses, arresting opponents, defectors and such. This brings me to my big question: Was Fidel Castro an effective leader? I will address both sides of this question, but believe that Fidel Castro was an effective leader for Cuba, as he successfully consolidated power, stabilized Cuba
His reign withstood the Bay of Pigs invasion, when the US tried to invade Cuba to get Castro out of power, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US, who Cuba had been dependant on under previous regimes, cutting off all ties and enforcing an embargo, the collapse of his allies, the Soviets, and more. Over the course of the embargo, Cuba has lost over $28.6 billion in trade, and yet Castro and Cuba have stayed strong to the nationalist, anti-imperialist policies. Obviously, Castro isn’t very popular here in America, but for what he was trying to do with Cuba, for his agenda and no one else’s, he was an extremely effective leader when it came to keeping out foreign powers and continuing with his nationalist views and
Cuba is 99.8% literate, which is 8th in the world, while youth literacy is at 100%. In Cuba, they had 6 deaths under age 5 per 1,000 births between 2005 and 2010, while the US had 8 per 1,000. Furthermore, Cuba has a life expectancy equal to first world countries around the world, such as the US and the UK. All of this is despite the fact that Cuba is still a relatively poor, impoverished country. It is a testament to Castro pushing education and healthcare as important issues to him, and it is another sign that he was an effective leader for

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