Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we are taking
on a, well, a truly monumental figure from the
20th century, someone whose name is known all
over the world. Fidel Castro Ruz. He's one of
those figures who just completely defined an
era. His shadow, I mean, it stretches across
nearly 50 years of Cuban history and really global
history, too. 50 years. That's an astonishing
amount of time to hold power. It really is. We're
talking about someone who was prime minister
right from the revolution in 1959 all the way
to 76, then president until 2008. And even after
that, he held the real institutional power as
first secretary of the Communist Party until
2011. It's an entire political lifetime. That
kind of influence, it just demands a serious
look. So our mission in this deep dive is for
you, the learner, to get a really comprehensive
fact based handle on his total impact. And you
have to start with the central paradox of the
man. Exactly. On one hand, he's revered by many
as this champion of anti -imperialism, of social
justice. But on the other, he's reviled as a
brutal dictator who overthought terrible human
rights abuses and economic ruin. And the source
materials really lay this duality out. in stark
terms. Supporters will point to him securing
Cuba's genuine sovereignty from the U .S., which
is a huge deal. And they'll highlight these incredible
social reforms, literacy, health care, education.
The metrics are, frankly... But the critics and
the sources are just as clear on this. They document
this pervasive state censorship, the ruthless
suppression of any dissent, and the huge human
cost, which you can see in the sheer number of
Cubans who fled the country. It's an incredibly
complex picture. It is. So let's try to unpack
it. We're going to trace his path from a surprisingly
wealthy youth into the chaos of university activism.
We'll hit the revolution, the Cold War crises
that nearly ended the world. Wait, missile. crisis.
Then the brutal survival of what they call the
special period. And finally, we'll try to assess
his political ideas and his very secretive personal
life. So let's jump right in. Let's do it. When
you think of a communist revolutionary, the image
that comes to mind is usually someone from, you
know, a background of poverty and struggle. But
that wasn't Fidel Castro at all. Not even close.
His early life really sets the stage for a lot
of the contradictions to come. He was born in
1926 in Buran and his father. Angel Castro was
a wealthy Spanish immigrant, a big landowner,
a latifundista, who'd done very, very well for
himself. And his mother. His mother, Lina Ruz
Gonzalez, actually started out as a servant in
the household and later became his father's second
wife. So this upbringing, it was one of privilege,
of wealth, and it gave him access to an education
that most Cubans at the time could only dream
of. And that education began in some very prestigious
schools, right? Jesuit -run schools, including
El Calaver de Belén in Havana. Yes, and that
Jesuit influence is important. It gave him the
sense of discipline, a kind of rigorous, high
-minded commitment to ideas, often with an emphasis
on social duty. But the real radicalization that
really kicked in when he went to the University
of Havana in 1945 to study law. And the atmosphere
there was, well, it wasn't exactly quiet and
academic. Not at all. It was all about... Raw,
often violent politics. The sources talk about
this culture of gangsterismo. Gangsterismo. What
was that exactly? And how did Castro get involved?
I mean, it was basically endemic political violence
that had taken over the university. You had different
political factions, a lot of them linked to organized
crime or political bosses, and they had their
own armed gangs. They used violence, intimidation,
even murder to control student groups, get jobs,
and influence the government. So he wasn't just
in the library studying. He was in the middle
of this violent political world learning how
to organize and, well, how to fight. Exactly.
And that's where he really doubles down on his
leftist and fiercely anti -imperialist ideas.
His main targets were the corruption that was
just rampant in Cuba and maybe even more importantly,
U .S. intervention in the Caribbean. He felt
Cuba wasn't really a sovereign nation. He was
convinced of it. And this anti -dictator instinct,
it showed up really early. In 1947, this is years
before his own revolution, he joins this failed
expedition to try and overthrow the dictator
in the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo. He
was always drawn to direct action. He also got
involved with the party of the Cuban people,
the Partido Ortodoxo. And the story around its
leader, Eduardo Chubas, seems like a really key
moment for him. Oh, it was hugely significant.
The Ortodoxos were all about fighting. corruption
and pushing for social justice, but they wanted
to do it through the democratic process. Through
elections. Right. But then in 1951, Chibas just
completely frustrated that he couldn't beat the
corruption politically. He commits suicide. And
for Castro, that was like a symbolic failure
of the whole system of nonviolent democratic
opposition. He saw himself as Chibas's heir and
was actually planning to run for office himself
in the 52 elections. Which brings us to another
huge turning point, his trip to Bogota, Colombia
in 1940. 8. Was he a fully formed Marxist by
then? The sources say his Marxist ideas were
still incipient, you know, just starting to form.
But that trip, it cemented everything. He was
in Bogota when a very popular leftist leader,
Jorge Eliezer Gaitan, was assassinated. And the
city just exploded. It triggered massive spontaneous
riots. They called it the Bogotazo. And Castro,
he dives right in. He joins the leftist liberals
fighting in the streets, reportedly even steals
guns from a police station. So what? What was
it about the Bogataza that changed him so much?
It was his first real taste of a mass popular
uprising. I mean, pure revolutionary chaos, raw
class conflict in the streets. He said later
that it made him identify completely with the
cause of the people. He realized it wasn't enough
to just fight corruption. The whole system, what
he started calling the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie,
was a real problem. He needed a systemic fix,
not just a cleanup job. Precisely. He even said,
That without understanding that history is a
class struggle between the rich and poor, you
are, and this is his quote, lost in a forest.
That experience was the bridge that led him to
combine his Cuban nationalism with Marxist theory.
It's where El Comandante starts to emerge. And
then comes the final catalyst, Fulgencio Batista.
Batista stages a military coup in March 1952.
He cancels the very elections Castro was planning
to run in. For Castro, this was it. This is an
unconstitutional dictatorship, plain and simple.
He tried legal channels first, though, right?
He did. He filed a petition in court accusing
Batista of violating the Constitution. But the
courts just threw it out. And for him, that was
the final proof that force was the only option
left. And this leads to the movement. What was
his strategy here, especially with the established
Communist Party? He was very strategic, very
pragmatic. He builds this secret. cell -based
group of about 1 ,200 members, mostly from poor
areas of Havana. But, and this is crucial, he
deliberately avoids a formal alliance with the
old guard communist party, the PSP. Why was that?
Because he knew he needed to attract moderate
Cubans. People who hated Batista but were also
really wary of communism, especially with the
Cold War heating up and U .S. anti -communist
feeling being so strong. So he's leading this
nationalist, anti -dictator movement, but it's
kind of ideologically vague on purpose? Exactly.
And that movement's first big action is the attack
on the Mankata Barracks. And it was, I mean,
just a catastrophic failure. Tell us about that.
July 26th, 1953. What went so wrong? It was a
tactical disaster, just born of inexperience.
165 revolutionaries dressed in army uniforms
to try and cause confusion. They launched this
attack on the barracks near Santiago de Cuba.
The goal was to seize weapons and spark a nationwide
uprising. Right, but it fell apart immediately.
Communication just broke down. Some of the cars
got lost. They never even got inside the main
barracks, and machine gun fire just pinned them
down instantly. I read that the initial order
was to avoid bloodshed, if possible. That's right.
But in the chaos, four rebels were killed almost
right away, and Castro had to order a retreat.
The aftermath, though, was even worse. Only six
rebels died in the actual fighting. But Batista's
army responded with incredible brutality. They
captured dozens of the rebels and tortured and
executed at least 22 of them. This brutality,
though, it kind of backfired on Batista. As news
of the torture and the killing started to leak
out, public opinion swung hard against the regime.
And Castro was eventually captured. But he used
his trial as a political platform. Oh, he absolutely
did. He's sentenced to 15 years, but he acts
as his own lawyer. And he gives this powerful
speech arguing that he wasn't rising up against
the state. He was rising up against Papista,
who had illegally overthrown the Constitution.
He even called Jose Martí the national hero,
the intellectual author of the attack, wrapping
himself in the flag of Cuban history. And that's
where the famous line comes from. History will
absolve me. Right. It was a four -hour speech
that was smuggled out of prison and became the
movement's manifesto. And that's the moment the
narrative shifts. The failed raid becomes a heroic
sacrifice. And the date, July 26th, becomes the
symbol of the revolution. He even renames his
group the 26th of July Movement, or MR267. So
how does he get out of prison after only two
years of a 15 -year sentence? It was a huge political
miscalculation by Batista. He held these sham
elections in 1954 to try and look legitimate,
and he allowed some political opposition. There
was a lot of public pressure for an amnesty for
the Moncada prisoners, and Batista thought releasing
them would sort of diffuse the tension. He just
didn't see Castro as a serious threat. A major
mistake. Castro gets out and pretty quickly has
to flee Cuba. Right. He's being monitored. He
can't operate. So he goes to Mexico, and that's
where the next crucial phase begins. The movement
becomes a focused guerrilla organization. And,
of course, it's in Mexico where he meets the
man who would become the revolution's ideological
conscience, Ernesto Che Guevara. Tell us about
that first meeting. Raul Castro introduced them.
Che was an Argentine doctor, but he was already
a deeply committed doctrinaire Marxist -Leninist.
And Fidel, he said he recognized right away that
Che was, quote, a more advanced revolutionary
than I was. Che brought that deep theoretical
Marxist rigor to Fidel's nationalism. They needed
money, though, and weapons. Castro actually came
to the U .S. to fundraise. It was a high -stakes
tour. Batista's agents were apparently all over
him, even in the U .S., allegedly plotting to
assassinate him. But they raised money? They
got military training from a Spanish Civil War
veteran, and they started buying weapons. And
he was picky about his allies. Very. He refused
to ally with other anti -Batista groups, like
a student group called the DRE, because he didn't
agree with their tactics of indiscriminate assassinations.
He wanted targeted, military -style action. Which
all leads to the journey back to Cuba on that
infamous yacht, the Grandma. A testament to their
desperation, really. The yacht was decrepit,
overloaded, barely seaworthy. 81 revolutionaries
set sail in November 1956. The crossing was just
hellish. Seven days of seasickness, leaks, and
they were delayed, which meant a coordinated
uprising that was supposed to happen in Santiago
failed. And the landing itself was a disaster.
A total disaster. They ran aground in a swamp
and were immediately attacked by Batista's army.
The invasion force was just shattered. In the
end, only 19 of them, including Fidel, Raul,
Che and Camila Sinafuegos managed to escape into
the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Just 19. Think
about that. A handful of survivors isolated their
whole plan in ruins. The revolution was alive,
but just barely. So this is the big question.
How do 19 exhausted, beaten men hiding in the
mountains manage to become the force that topples
a U .S.-backed dictator with an army of 30 ,000?
Well, they started small. Classic guerrilla tactics.
Hit and run raids on small army outposts, mostly
just to get weapons, which they desperately needed.
But the real key, the game changer, was winning
over the local population. The peasants in the
mountains. Exactly. They worked hard to gain
their trust. One of the first things they did
was execute a local official, a guy named Chicho
Osorio, who was hated by the peasants for exploiting
them. That sent a powerful message. And even
though their first recruits were mostly from
the cities, their support in the countryside
just grew and grew. But the real battle, it seems,
was one in the media. Castro was a genius at
PR. A master of political theater. In 1957, he
pulls off this incredible coup. He arranges for
a reporter from the New York Times, Herbert Matthews,
to come deep into the mountains for an interview.
And Matthews' report was a sensation. It portrayed
Castro as this heroic, almost mythical freedom
fighter. It completely refuted Batista's claims
that the rebellion was crushed. That one interview
turned Castro from a local Cuban insurgent into
an international celebrity overnight. And what
was he promising at this stage? Was he talking
about socialism? Not at all. He was very careful.
He published the Sierra Maestra Manifesto, which
promised really moderate reforms, land reform,
industrialization, a big literacy campaign. It
was all designed to appeal to the broadest possible
anti -Batista coalition. He presented this nationalist,
democratic face to the world. So Batista decides
he has to crush them once and for all. He launches
Operation Verano. Right. A massive counteroffensive.
He sends 10 ,000 soldiers into the mountains
against what was maybe 300 rebels. And it failed.
Spectacularly. A few reasons. Batista's army.
It was a conventional force. They were totally
unprepared for guerrilla warfare in the mountains.
Their morale was terrible. Defection rates were
incredibly high. And Castro's rebels just used
their local knowledge, ambushes, landmines to
completely halt the offensive. And that's when
the U .S. pulls its support for Batista. That
was the final nail in the coffin. The U .S. was
getting fed up with Batista's brutality and his
obvious inability to win. Once they withdrew
military aid, the regime just crumbled from within.
Batista flees on New Year's Eve 1958. He does.
He takes over $300 million with him and leaves
the power vacuum. Castro is furious at this.
He sees it as a trick to install a different
government. So he orders his columns, led by
Guevara and Cienfuegos, to march on Havana. Castro
himself enters the city in January 1959 to these
massive euphoric crowds. So the revolution has
won, but now he has to govern. He starts by appointing
a moderate, Manuel Urrutia, as president. Right,
but that was mostly for show. Castro quickly
took the real power for himself. He's sworn in
as prime minister in February and immediately
starts ruling by decree. And one of the first
things he does is incredibly controversial. The
mass trials. Yes. There was this overwhelming
popular demand for revenge against the Baristanos.
So they held these public trials that resulted
in hundreds of executions. How did he justify
that, especially with the world watching? He
called it revolutionary justice. He said it wasn't
based on old legal rules, but on moral conviction.
The argument was that the old system was corrupt,
so the revolution itself had to be the judge.
But critics, of course, pointed to it as setting
a really dangerous precedent for bypassing the
rule of law. At the same time, though, the social
reforms he promised were happening and happening
fast. They were profound and people could feel
them immediately. Rents for the poor were cut
in half. High level government salaries were
slashed. And they launched these massive projects
in education and health care. The sources say
they opened more classrooms in the first 30 months
than had been opened in the previous 30 years.
An incredible statistic. But the political signs
were already pointing away from democracy. Oh,
absolutely. The clearest signal was when he postponed
elections. The slogan was Revolution First, Elections
Later. That pretty much told you everything you
needed to know. And when he visited the U .S.
in April 59, he met with Vice President Nixon.
Right. Eisenhower refused to meet him. And Nixon's
assessment from that meeting is fascinating.
What did he think? Nixon was conflicted. He saw
that Castro was this incredibly charismatic,
powerful leader, but he also said he was either
incredibly naive about communism or under communist
discipline. Nixon sensed that there was a deeper
ideology at play than just simple nationalism.
And the breaking point with the U .S. really
comes with the agrarian reforms in May 1959.
That was the point of no return. The new law
put caps on how much land anyone could own and
crucially banned foreign ownership of land. This
was a direct attack on the massive U .S. corporations
that owned huge parts of Cuba. It was a massive
transfer of wealth. It was. About 15 % of the
nation's wealth changed hands, taken from the
elite, including Castro's own mother, and given
to the state. Castro called it the dictatorship
of the exploited against the exploiters. This
shift also led to a purge of moderates within
his own government, right? The Hubert Matos affair.
That was the litmus test. Hubert Matos was a
respected revolutionary commander. He resigned
in October 59, saying he was worried about the
growing communist influence in the government.
And Castro's reaction? He had him arrested immediately.
Yeah. The message was clear. Disagreeing with
the ideological direction of the revolution is
a form of treason. Around the same time, the
moderate head of the National Bank resigned and
was replaced by Che Guevara. It was a clear signal
of where things were headed. So the U .S. starts
to move from disapproval to actively trying to
get rid of him. By March 1960, yes. Eisenhower
gives the CIA the green light to overthrow Castro.
They get a $13 million budget. The CIA even started
working with the mafia, who were furious that
Castro had shut down all their casinos and brothels
in Havana. So Castro needs a powerful friend.
And he finds one in the Soviet Union. He signs
a huge trade deal, swapping Cuban sugar for Soviet
oil. The real escalation came when the U .S.-owned
oil refineries in Cuba refused to process the
Soviet crude. So Castro nationalized them. Instantly.
And that's what triggered the U .S. to impose
the economic embargo that would define their
relationship for the next 60 years. During this
time, he also creates this powerful tool for
social control, the Committees for the Defense
of the Revolution, the CDRs. Right. On the surface,
they were neighborhood watch groups for public
health campaigns and things like that. But in
reality, they became this vast network of neighborhood
spies designed to report any counter -revolutionary
activity. By 1970, some... something like 80
% of the population were members. It gave the
state incredible control right down to the block
level. And all of this tension builds and builds
until it explodes with the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The U .S. cuts diplomatic ties in January 1961.
Then in April, the CIA -backed brigade of Cuban
exiles invades at the Bay of Pigs. Castro personally
takes command of the defense, and the invasion
is a complete spectacular failure within days.
It was a huge military victory for Castro and
an even bigger propaganda victory. And he used
that victory to make his big announcement. He
did. Standing in front of cheering crowds right
after the invasion was defeated, he declares,
What the imperialists cannot forgive us is that
we have made a socialist revolution under their
noses. That was it. That was the moment he officially
defined Cuba as a socialist state. The pretense
of a multi -party system was over. He then starts
to consolidate all political power under a Leninist
model. Right. He merges all the different revolutionary
groups into one organization based on the principle
of democratic centralism, which basically means
the party, and therefore Castro controls everything.
And this control extends into culture and social
life, leading to some pretty harsh repression.
Absolutely. There was a famous case where a film
called PM was censored that led to his big words
to the intellectual speech where he laid down
the law. Within the revolution, everything goes.
Against the revolution, nothing. This is also
the period when they began persecuting homosexuals
and others they saw as social deviants, calling
them bourgeois traits. And economically, things
were not going well. Not at all. The economy
was in a terrible state by 1962. The state planning
commission had promised 10 % growth, but bad
management and the U .S. embargo led to a steep
decline. There were food shortages, rationing.
It got so bad that Castro actually purged some
of the old communists, blaming them for the failures,
calling them sectarian, which was also a way
of asserting his own total control over the Moscow
loyalists. Which takes us right up to the doorstep
of the Cuban Missile Crisis, probably the single
most dangerous moment of the entire Cold War.
And Castro's right at the heart of it. What was
his thinking in agreeing to let the Soviets put
nuclear missiles in Cuba? Two things. Security
and ideology. Khrushchev wanted to put missiles
there to balance out the U .S. missiles he had
in Turkey. For Castro, he saw it as an absolute
guarantee against another U .S. invasion like
the Bay of Pigs. He also saw it as a way to advance
the cause of global socialism. And it was all
done in complete secrecy. Until they were discovered.
And this is where it gets really terrifying.
Castro's position was even more extreme than
Khrushchev's. It really was. Once the U .S. blockaded
the island. The tension was just unbelievable.
Castro, genuinely believing a U .S. invasion
was imminent, sent a message to Khrushchev urging
him to launch a nuclear first strike against
the United States if Cuba was invaded. He was
willing to risk nuclear Armageddon. For the survival
of his revolution, yes. It was a shocking request.
Thankfully, Khrushchev ignored him and negotiated
directly with the U .S. But that left Castro
feeling betrayed. He was absolutely furious.
The deal was the Soviets pull the missiles. The
U .S. promises not to invade and secretly removes
its missiles from Turkey. Castro felt like a
pawn. They had decided the fate of his country
over his head. In response, he refused to allow
UN inspections of the missile sites. It showed
his deep distrust of both superpowers. But he
couldn't afford to stay angry. He needed the
Soviets. He had to mend fences. He visited the
USSR in 1963, got the Order of Lenin, even sent
his son Fidelito to school in Moscow. The Soviet
economic lifeline was just too important to lose.
Let's talk about his foreign policy in the mid
-60s. The Soviets were talking about... peaceful
coexistence. But Castro was all about exporting
revolution. This was the peak of his revolutionary
ambition. He saw Cuba as the vanguard, proof
that small nations could stand up to imperialism.
So he started training and supporting militant
groups from all over the world, the Viet Cong,
the Black Panthers. He supported Marxist governments
in Chile and Congo. And he formalized this with
the Tri -Continental Conference in 1966. Yes,
that's where they set up the Latin American Solidarity
Organization, OLSS, with that famous slogan,
the duty of a revolution is to make revolution.
He was positioning Havana as the headquarters
for global guerrilla movements, often in direct
opposition to Soviet policy. And this is the
period that ends with the death of Che Guevara.
Che was in Bolivia trying to start his Andean
project, this continental revolution, when he
was captured and killed in 1967. The sources
say Castro was personally devastated. The loss
of his closest comrade was a huge blow, and it
made him rethink his strategy for exporting revolution.
Back in Cuba, the economy was struggling, and
he responded with even more ideology, the great
revolutionary offensive of 1968. He was inspired
by the fervor of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
So he decides to wipe out the last vestiges of
private enterprise. He shut down all 55 ,000
remaining private businesses, from small shops
to street stalls, calling the owners parasites
and counterrevolutionaries. And the result? An
economic disaster. Productivity just plummeted.
It was impossible to get basic consumer goods.
This ushered in a period they called... the gray
years. And this is when he's forced to align
more closely with the Soviet economic model.
She had no choice. The economy was in shambles.
From 1970 to 72, Soviet economists came in and
basically restructured the entire system. In
1972, Cuba formally joined ComCon, the Soviet
economic bloc. This locked them into being a
producer of sugar for the Soviets in exchange
for oil and subsidies. The dream of independent
industrialization was over. But while he's becoming
more dependent on Moscow economically, he starts
projecting Cuban military power in a way no one
expected, especially in Africa. Right. He saw
Africa as the weakest link in the imperialist
chain, a place where Cuba could really make a
mark fighting colonialism and apartheid. It started
with sending about 4 ,000 troops to help Syria
in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But the really huge
commitment was in Angola in 1975. That was a
massive undertaking. He sent 18 ,000 troops to
support the Marxist MPLA in the Angolan Civil
War against factions backed by the U .S. and
apartheid South Africa. Yeah. The logistics of
moving that many soldiers across the Atlantic
were staggering. And Castro always insisted it
was his decision, not a Soviet order. It was
about taking a moral stand against apartheid.
And he didn't stop there. He got involved in
the Horn of Africa, too. He did in the Ogaden
War in 1977. He sided with Marxist Ethiopia against
Somalia. He sent 17 ,000 Cuban troops, and they
were the decisive factor in Ethiopia's victory.
This period really cemented Cuba's reputation
as a serious military player on the world stage,
an indispensable ally for anti -colonial movements.
And while all this is happening abroad, he's
finally formalizing his power at home with the
1976 Constitution. Right. After 16 years of just
ruling by decree. This new constitution, which
was heavily based on the 1936 Soviet one, officially
created the single -party socialist state. It
made Castro both head of state and head of government,
concentrating all legal power in his hands. But
the system included a national assembly? Castro
claimed this was a form of direct democracy.
That's the core contradiction. He would argue
it was more democratic than Western systems because
people participated through mass assemblies.
But the reality was it was all based on Leninist
democratic centralism. All candidates were vetted
by the party and the CDRs, so no real opposition
could ever emerge. The power was completely centralized
in the party, which meant it was completely invested
in the personality of Fidel and his brother Raul.
By the end of the 70s, he's also a major figure
in global diplomacy, leading the non -aligned
movement. Yes, he was president of the NNM from
79 to 83. He used that platform, especially at
the U .N., to rail against global inequality,
becoming a really powerful voice for the developing
world. Even if his standing was a bit damaged
when he refused to condemn the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan. As we move into the 1980s, all
the economic pressure that's been building up
in Cuba just bursts into view with the Mariel
boatlift. What happened there? It was a perfect
storm of economic hardship and political frustration.
In April 1980, thousands of Cubans stormed the
Peruvian embassy in Havana, demanding asylum.
Castro's response was quite something. He just
announced that anyone who wanted to leave could
go from the port of Mariel. But the way the government
managed it was incredibly cynical. It was. It
was a political move to weaponize the exodus.
About 120 ,000 refugees left for Florida. But
the Cuban government used the opportunity to
empty its prisons and mental hospitals, deliberately
loading people they considered undesirables,
criminals, the mentally ill, and homosexuals
onto the boats. Castro publicly called them scum.
And throughout the 80s, the only thing keeping
Cuba afloat was Soviet money. The dependency
was just staggering. By the late 80s, the USSR
was pumping in $4 to $5 billion a year in subsidies.
That's between 30 and 40 percent of Cuba's entire
GDP. But the problem was, this money didn't encourage
efficiency or diversification. It just propped
up a failing system. The Reagan years brought
more hostility from the U .S., but Castro was
still fighting his wars abroad, especially in
Angola. Yes, the final big push in Angola came
in 1987. Castro saw a victory there as being
essential to breaking the back of apartheid in
South Africa. He sent 12 ,000 more troops and
was personally involved in the strategy for the
key battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The peace talks
that followed led to the withdrawal of all foreign
troops, and Castro claimed it as a huge victory
against apartheid, which really cemented his
legacy in Africa. But just as he's winning military
victories, the ground is shifting under his feet
in Moscow. Gorbachev's reforms must have terrified
him. He saw Glasnost and Perestroika as an ideological
betrayal, something that would weaken socialism
everywhere. And the end came quickly. In 1989,
Gorbachev told him the subsidies were ending.
When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991,
Cuba's economy was essentially decapitated overnight.
Which plunged the country into this special period
in time of peace. It's hard to overstate how
devastating this was. It was horrific. The GDP
dropped by more than 40 percent in two years.
There were massive food shortages, widespread
malnutrition. The country ground to a halt. Petrol
was so scarce they had to bring in hundreds of
thousands of Chinese bicycles and start using
oxen to plow fields again. There were blackouts
that lasted 16 hours a day. So how did Castro,
this rigid ideologue, justify the capitalist
-style reforms he had to make to survive? Well,
survival came first. At a party congress in 1991,
they reluctantly announced these major changes.
They legalized farmers' markets, allowed for
small private businesses, and most shocking of
all, they legalized the U .S. dollar. Dollarization.
What did that mean for the average person? It
created a two -tiered society overnight. If you
had access to dollars from tourism or family
abroad, you could shop in special, well -stocked
stores. If you didn't, you were stuck with the
failing state system. It created massive, visible
inequality, which went against everything the
revolution supposedly stood for. And the state
had to find new sources of income. They pivoted
hard to tourism and biotechnology. By 1995, tourism
brought in more money than sugar for the first
time in Cuban history. There are some social
shifts during this time, too, right? A bit of
a loosening up. A noticeable softening, yes.
They eased emigration restrictions. Castro softened
his stance on religion, even allowing religious
believers to join the Communist Party. The Pope's
visit in 1998 was a huge moment. Castro also
started talking about environmentalism, trying
to find a new way to be relevant on the world
stage. And then an economic savior appeared in
the form of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. That alliance,
forged in 1999, was Cuba's salvation. Chavez
saw Castro as a mentor. They created a trade
agreement called ALBA, which was classic socialist
barter. Cuba sent tens of thousands of doctors
and teachers to Venezuela in exchange for cheap
oil up to 90 ,000 barrels a day. It stabilized
the Cuban economy. By 2006, his health finally
gives out. Right. He had to undergo intestinal
surgery, and he provisionally transferred power
to his brother Raul. Then in February 2008, he
made it official. He announced he was retiring
as president and commander in chief. Roel was
then elected to take his place. But he didn't
disappear. He remained this elder statesman figure.
And he made a really remarkable public apology.
He did. In 2010, he was being interviewed and
he publicly took responsibility for the persecution
of gay men back in the 60s and 70s when they
were sent to labor camps. He called it a great
injustice. It was stunning and very rare admission
of a mistake from him. He also kept working behind
the scenes on the world stage. Yes. We later
found out he played a key role in orchestrating
the peace talks between the Colombian government
and the FARC rebels, using Cuba as a neutral
ground. His last big political statement was
during the Cuban thaw with the Obama administration.
Right. While he sort of supported the idea of
normalizing relations, his deep -seated anti
-imperialism just wouldn't let him trust the
U .S. When President Obama visited in 2016, Castro
refused to meet him. Instead, he wrote this scathing
letter saying Cuba has no need of gifts from
the empire. It was his final, unwavering statement
of national sovereignty. Fidel Castro died on
November 25, 2016 at age 90. his ashes were taken
on a journey that reversed the route of his victory
caravan in 1959. A symbolic end to an incredibly
long and complex life. Okay, so we've gone through
the timeline. Let's try to distill his core ideology.
What was the engine driving Fidelismo? Well,
he always said he was a socialist, a Marxist,
and a Leninist. But if you dig deeper, the most
fundamental layer was just this intense Cuban
nationalism. The sources suggest that the 19th
century independence hero, José Martí, was probably
more important to his core beliefs than Karl
Marx was. So it was this unique blend of Martí's
anti -colonialism and Lenin's centralized power
structure. Exactly. He defined socialism less
by political theory and more by state control
of production and, crucially, distribution, making
sure everyone had access to health, education,
and resources. It was a very Latin American brand
of revolutionary socialism. And within that,
there were some surprising social views. For
a global revolutionary, he was pretty socially
conservative. He hated drugs, gambling, prostitution.
He saw them as moral poisons left over from the
Batista days. He talked a lot about integrity,
hard work, and discipline. Now, what about the
private man? For someone who was on the world
stage for so long, his personal life was incredibly
secret. Almost a total black box. The state never
released any official information about his family.
Everything we know comes from defectors or biographies
written much later. He never had an official
first lady, for example. His family life was
very complicated. Very. He had his first marriage
to Myrta Diaz -Balart, which produced his eldest
son, Fidelito. But he had relationships with
multiple women and at least 11 children. His
longest marriage was to a woman named Dalia Soto
Del Valle. They had five sons together, but their
entire existence was kept a secret from the Cuban
public until around 2006. And then there's the
controversy over his personal wealth. This is
one of the biggest points of attack for his critics.
Forbes magazine back in 2006 estimated his personal
fortune at $900 million. How did they get to
that number? It was an assumption. They argued
that because he had total control over state
-owned companies, he must be skimming a percentage
of their profits for himself. And Castro's response?
He denied it completely, called it a ridiculous
lie meant to discredit him. But, you know, former
bodyguards who defected claimed he had private
islands, yachts, multiple homes. So it remains
this unresolved paradox. The leader who preached
austerity. while allegedly controlling immense
personal wealth. So let's pull all this together
and look at the legacy first. The criticism,
the brutal dictator label. The criticism is very
clear. People like Donald Trump, Marco Rubio,
they consistently called him a brutal dictator.
Human Rights Watch documented what they called
his repressive machinery. The systematic human
rights abuses, the total censorship, the suppression
of all political dissent, and of course the fact
that hundreds of thousands of Cubans chose to
flee. But the defense, the champion label, is
just as passionate, especially from the global
south. Absolutely. His supporters see him as
the man who finally gave Cuba true independence
from the United States. And you cannot deny the
achievements in social welfare. The improvements
in health care and education were so substantial
that by 2006, the UN said Cuba had achieved sustainable
development, which is just extraordinary for
a small, blockaded island nation. The reactions
to his death really showed that global split.
Perfectly. U .S. leaders and Cuban exiles condemned
him, but leaders from allied nations praised
him. Justin Trudeau called him a remarkable leader.
Putin called him a sincere and reliable friend.
And maybe most powerfully, Nelson Mandela always
credited Cuba's role in helping to end apartheid.
And how do historians tend to view his consolidation
of power? They often talk about his moral and
political hegemony. Meaning no matter what the
Constitution said, all power was completely invested
in his personality. That level of personal control
for five decades is what leads to the comparisons
with other major 20th century authoritarian leaders.
The bottom line is he built and ran a one party
state where political opposition was simply not
allowed. So as we wrap up this deep dive, let's
just quickly recap. We've seen how a failed military
attack at Mankato was brilliantly turned into
the political force of the 26th of July movement.
He navigated the. absolute peak of Cold War tension
in the missile crisis and projected Cuban power
all over the world, especially in Africa. And
maybe most impressively, he was the force that
held the country together through the economic
trauma of the special period, surviving by mixing
his fierce nationalist ideology with some very
pragmatic capitalist style reforms. His ability
to adapt while never giving up ultimate control
is, well, it's a testament to his political skill.
And that central paradox, that's really the heart
of it all. He delivered on his promises of national
sovereignty and expanded social rights, health
care, education for the collective. But the price
for that was the total suppression of individual
political freedoms and the creation of this centralized
one man state. A fascinating and for many, a
devastating figure. His life is a perfect encapsulation
of the triumphs, the contradictions and the immense
cost of 20th century revolution. Indeed. Which
brings us to our final provocative thought for
you, the learner, to consider. Think back to
the beginning. Castro initially promised multi
-party elections, but then he cancelled them,
claiming his government was a direct democracy
of mass assemblies. So here's the question. To
what extent can a revolution that starts with
democratic and anti -colonial ideals justify
eventually rejecting electoral democracy for
a one -party, one -man state? What happens when
a leader's commitment to national sovereignty
which he delivered starts to fundamentally conflict
with the promise of political liberty which he
suppressed? That's something to mull over.