Fidel Castro

7 Key excerpts on "Fidel Castro"

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  Political Leadership in an Era of Decolonisation

  Case Studies from Across the Globe

  • Malcolm Murfett(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 Fidel Castro The eternal leader of a revolution or the leader of an eternal revolution? Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003426165-3

  Condemn me, it doesn’t matter, history will absolve me.

  (Fidel Castro’s statement in his trial for the attack on the Moncada barracks, on 16 October 1953)*

  Introduction

  It may seem a little strange to start a chapter for an academic book talking about oneself. Especially because this is not a chapter about myself or my theories or academic thoughts, rather it is a chapter about a global leader who left a huge impact on generations both during and after the Cold War. My chapter is about Fidel Castro (1926–2016), but to introduce the character, I may need a small autobiographic digression.

  For a young boy, born during a right-wing military dictatorship (1964–1985) in Brazil, one among several that were in place in many Latin American countries, growing up in poverty in a socially unequal society, under political repression, disappearances, tortures, and death, merely developing political consciousness was already an act of rebellion. Grassroots movements, like workers’ unions, students’ unions, and social movements, had a strong role in this process of political education. Even the Catholic Church became a powerful space for political resistance, thanks to the Theology of Liberation being practised in the region since the early 1960s. As every teenager around the world, we were also searching for our idols, our exemplary figures. Besides the traditional rock stars or famous actors, for many of my generation, we also had our political idols. And in Latin America, undoubtedly, those would be Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. At that time, Che Guevara was already dead, killed in the jungles of Bolivia in 1967, fighting another Quixotesque guerrilla war. The one alive and sound was Fidel Castro. My political engagement during my youth was strongly impacted by this controversial leader that on one side was seen as the only one in Latin America who managed to not only win a revolution but also establish a regime against American imperialism; who survived several botched assassination bids by the CIA; that from a small and poor island, continuously challenged the predatory capitalist model implanted in the Latin American region. Of course, I was aware of the other side of this history, such as the executions of political opponents – described as traitors of the revolution –, the repression to the GLBTQ+ on the island, the restriction of the press, and other repressive actions of Fidel Castro. However, the simple fact that he managed to break the path of US imperialism in the region was enough for propelling him into an iconic position. So, on the walls of my bedroom, instead of posters of singers and actors or actresses, I had on one side Che Guevarra and on the other Fidel Castro. Overlaid on both posters were quotations of some of their speeches.

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  The Politics of Che Guevara

  Theory and Practice

  • Samuel Farber(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Haymarket Books

    (Publisher)

  Chapter Three Che Guevara in Power

  I

  t is striking that Che Guevara’s status as an international icon is almost entirely based on his militant activities and writings as an international guerrilla fighter in Cuba, the Congo, and Bolivia. Yet, one could make a strong argument that his most important and consequential political legacy was the major role he played as one of the principal leaders of the Cuban Revolution, building a new socioeconomic and political system on the island, thus shaping the future of Cuba for generations to come.

  When Batista was overthrown on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro had already emerged as the dominant leader of the July 26th revolutionary movement. Right behind him, Che Guevara was, along with Camilo Cienfuegos and Raúl Castro, one of the three other principal leaders of the rebel army, and certainly the most politically and culturally sophisticated of the three. Although a special revolutionary law had made Guevara a citizen with the same rights as a native Cuban, this did not entirely remove the subtle but real political disadvantage of his being a foreigner. His cold and distant personality, in some ways similar to Raúl Castro’s, encouraged a great deal of popular respect and even awe, but not love, and certainly not the popular adoration bestowed on Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos. With his slight physical resemblance to popular representations of Jesus Christ and Camilo’s urban working-class background, Cienfuegos represented to the Cuban people the ideal virtues of a warm demeanor, good humor, and good looks.

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  Return to Havana

  The Decline of Cuban Society Under Castro

  • Maurice Halperin(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Vanderbilt University Press

    (Publisher)

  He was convinced that he was engaged in a historic mission. Like Moses or Jose Marti he would lead his people out of bondage. Once in power, he felt impelled to liberate the oppressed peoples of Latin America. And in middle age, he sent Cuban armies to support revolution in Mrica. There is an additional com-ponent of Castro's personality that helps explain his amazing success as a leader. It is his charisma, a mysterious but real, almost hypnotic power, which attracted the intense, unques-tioning loyalty of his earliest followers and then captivated the great mass of the Cuban people. Combining his charis-ma with a rare oratorical virtuosity, Castro could hold a mil-lion people spellbound for hours at a time. He had surpassed anybody in previous Cuban history as the anoint-ed leader of the Cuban people. To be effective, the charis-matic leader must also have convincing credentials, and in this too Fidel Castro was well equipped. He was the warrior-hero who risked his life in an apparently hopeless struggle to overthrow tyranny and, by a miracle, managed to survive. After undergoing incredible hardships, he emerged as the supreme military and political leader of a victorious insur-rection. He was the right man in the right place at the right time and with the right message. Castro, of course, was not raised in a vacuum. He was brought up in a country that had produced Jose Marti, a revered intellectual giant and martyred freedom fighter; a 168 RETHINKING Fidel Castro country that had undergone a great political and social upheaval during his childhood; a country in which a Com-munist party had briefly flourished; a country dominated by a foreign power. Traditions of nationalism and of striving for political and social reform molded a significant part of Cuban culture that Castro's generation had absorbed. And there was, in addition, the Hispanic precedent of caudillismo (strongman leadership), which was to serve Castro in his exercise of power.

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  Revolutionary States, Leaders, and Foreign Relations

  A Comparative Study of China, Cuba, and Iran

  • Houman A. Sadri(Author)
  • 1997(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  Contrary to popular belief, these bold decisions of the revolutionary idealists, like Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara, did not please the Soviets. In fact, Moscow was unsure about the ideological convictions of the top leaders of the 26 July Movement—the Fidelistas—because they had not given any significant role Cuban Foreign Relations 75 to the well-established Communist party of Cuba (the Popular Socialist party, or PSP). The latter was concerned that the actions of the revolutionary idealists would provoke American military intervention that would put the Soviets in a difficult political position—that of having to defend Cuba and take the risk of a global confrontation with the United States, or that of potentially allowing the socialist regime in Cuba to be dissipated by American intervention. 43 The gap between Havana and Washington continued to widen. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba on 3 January 1961. Three months later, Castro declared that the Cuban Revolution was socialist. 44 According to Raul Castro, a revolutionary idealist, this meant that the revolution had passed the liberation phase and entered the construction of socialism phase. 5 It also meant that idealists had consolidated their power in setting both domestic and foreign policy agendas. Shortly thereafter, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion not only created diplomatic embarrassment for the United States, but contributed to Castro's solidification of the government and the increased global attention paid to the Cuban's anticolonial cry at international gatherings. For example, Revolutionary Cuba was the only Latin American state represented at the founding conference of NAM.

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  Cuba in the World

  • Cole Blasier, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Cole Blasier, Carmelo Mesa-Lago(Authors)
  • 1979(Publication Date)
  • University of Pittsburgh Press

    (Publisher)

  But more than that, Fidel's position as the supreme lider maximo has now been institutionalized in his multiple roles as flrst secretary, president of both the Council of State and Council of Ministers, and commander-in-chief. As president of the Council of State, moreover, he is 17 Institutionalization and Political Elites empowered not only to name the first vice-president, vice-presidents, and other members of the Council of Ministers, but also to replace them with substitutes. 14 Institutionalization has thus reconcentrated power even though it has also re- sulted in a broader distribution of political elites in the present leadership. Political Elites and Foreign Policies Fidel's successful coalition-building, together with the favorable outcome of the institutionalization process, has affected Havana's foreign policy postures on several fronts. This strengthened power base at home has evidently embold- ened Fidel to embark upon new foreign policy ventures toward Latin America, the Third World, and Washington since 1973. Additionally, the very diversity in the makeup of Cuba's new ruling coalition, along with Fidel's resurgence, now makes Cuba's foreign policies far more complex than was the case before or immediately after 1970. Diversity and complexity do not necessarily mean that there is intense inter-elite conflict or an absence of consensus within the regime. On the contrary, the Cuban leadership of the 1970s appears enjoy a basic agreement on such major foreign policy goals as maintaining Cuba's independence from the United States; assuring adequate levels of Soviet economic and military support while minimizing Cuba's client-state relationship; acquiring trade, advanced technol- ogy, and training from capitalist countries; and forging strong links with the Third World. IS But different elites are likely to emphasize some goals over others or to favor a particular strategic line for the attainment of a goal.

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  State Resistance to Globalisation in Cuba

  • Antonio Carmona Báez(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Pluto Press

    (Publisher)

  Additionally, Fidel Castro became popular among other developing countries, both socialist and non-socialist; he served as the Non-Aligned Movement’s chairperson between 1979 and 1983. This brought Cuba closer to countries like India and Egypt. It is true that Cuba stepped up international solidarity efforts and collaboration with left-wing movements under the auspices of the Soviet Union after the country entered the CMEA. But during this time Cuba was also experiencing good economic years in relation to the West, especially in its sugar trade deals. In view of all this, therefore, there can be no definite correlation between Cuba’s presence internation-ally and Soviet foreign policy. UNITY, CONTINUITY, STATE SUPREMACY AND POPULAR PARTICIPATION The 1959 Revolution was not a fulfilment of Cuba’s history of class struggle. Rather, it was a return to a necessary united party/state condition – such as José Martí had advocated – in order to achieve its pursuit of national independence and some sort of social progress within the confines of a capitalist world system. This happened almost more naturally than if it had been a conscientious fulfilment of human emancipation led by one party or movement. The existence of a revo-lutionary tradition, at the workplace and in academic circles, gave the impetus for social change at various periods throughout the neo-colonial period. More specifically, the tradition of resistance against Spanish colonialism became naturally the spirit of anti-imperialism. The merging of working-class interests with those of intellectual circles that upheld the nationalist values of Cuban independence was done out of political necessity in order to overthrow a dictatorship and a senseless, vicious cycle of corrupt, electoral games in a neo-colonial setting. Certainly this was done under the charisma of Fidel Castro, but it was his implemented ideas that actually mattered. The implemented ideas, in turn, were supported by the masses.

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  Mental Maps in the Early Cold War Era, 1945-68

  • S. Casey, J. Wright, S. Casey, J. Wright(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  12 Fidel Castro Clive Foss Forming a mental map Castro’s view of the world was the product of his character, his physical and social environment, and his education. 1 As a child, born in 1926, he was indulged, headstrong and rebellious. He was extremely intelligent, but much more devoted to athletics than intellectual pursuits. Castro grew up in a region dominated by the estates and mills of absentee US owners. His father was a rich, rough, unpretentious self-made man, who passed no bourgeois or aristocratic attitudes on to his children. The young Castro was an enthusiastic explorer and mountain climber who developed a great familiarity with all kinds of terrain. 2 His first lessons in politics involved seeing his father and other landowners control the votes of the peasants. 3 Jesuit teachers instilled in Castro an austere lifestyle and a sense of honour and duty. Their lessons were dogmatic and not to be questioned, but Castro was an inattentive student who crammed at the last minute and always got good marks. Later, at university, he routinely skipped classes, relying on his stupendous memory to get him through. 4 His style of learning later led him to believe that he was expert in fields that he knew from voracious reading rather than practical experience. 5 Castro remembered his first encounter with political geography at the age of nine or ten, when he saw a globe with colours representing the colonial empires, only later realizing, he claimed, the evil they repre- sented. 6 His favourite subjects were history, geography and the lives of famous men. The French Revolution fascinated him as did the ongoing Spanish Civil War. His greatest hero was Cuba’s famed writer and patriot José Martí, who warned that Cuban and Latin American independence had to be defended against US imperialism. In school, Castro was named 240 Clive Foss 241 Cuba’s outstanding collegiate athlete, but he also developed a talent for debate and public speaking.

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