Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born August 13, 1926. Castro is best known as a Cuban communist who has been President from 1976 to 2008. Castro was the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. He is listed as a Marxist-Leninist, and under his administration Cuba became a one-party socialist state. Castro demanded that all industry and businesses be government owned.
Castrol adopted anti-imperialist politics and participated in rebellions against the right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia. Castro planned the takeover of the United States-backed military government of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista. Castro formed a revolutionary faction with his brother Ra?l and friend Che Guevara. Castro led the Cuban Revolution that overthrew Batista in 1959.
Castro was on friendly terms with the Soviet Union and the U.S. fearing the spread of communism unsuccessfully attempted to remove him via economic blockades, assassination and counter-revolution or the Bay of Pigs invasion (1961). Castro gave permission to the Soviets to install nuclear weapons on Cuba. This sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
In 1961 Castro's Cuba became the first Communist country in the western hemisphere. In addition, Castro supported overseas revolutionary groups and sent Cuban militia to fight in the Yom Kippur and Angolan Civil Wars.
After the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991, Castro turned to Latin America's Pink Tide. This alliance incuded Hugo Ch?vez's Venezuela and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (2006). In 2006 Castro relinquished his responsibilities to Ra?l Castro. Raul formally assumed the presidency in 2008.
Castro has been directly responsible for multiple human rights abuses and the exodus of millions of Cubans. He has impoverished his country's economy yet he is still politically influential to revolutionary groups around the world.
His first wife Mirta Diaz Balart and Castro has one son. His second wife Dalia Soto del Valle produced five children and Castro has a daughter born to Natalia Ravueltta. Castro was well-known for his one-night stands and how many other children he has is unknown.