Fidel Castro

August 13, 1926

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. Born in Birán, Oriente, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962. Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "Special Period", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide" – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and formed the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006, Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. Description above from the Wikipedia article Fidel Castro, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Cast

Karl Marx und seine Erben

(Self (archive footage))

The Society of the Spectacle

(Self (archive footage))

Comandante

(Self)

537 Votes

(Self (archive footage))

Cuban Rafters

(Himself (archive footage))

Yanki No!

(Himself)

Looking For Fidel

(Self)

Far from Vietnam

(Self (segment "Fidel Castro"))

General Idi Amin Dada

(Himself (archive footage) (uncredited))

The Man Who Saved the World

(Self (archive footage))

CUBA: Defending Socialism, Resisting Imperialism

(Himself)

Historien ska frikänna mig

(Self)

Laissez-faire

(Self (archive footage))

Anxiety. Thoughts of an Old Man

(Self (archive footage))

The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files

(Self (archive footage))

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

(Self (archive footage))

And Heaven Was Taken by Storm

(self)

Fidel Castro no Rio de Janeiro, 1959

I Am Jackie O

(Self (archive footage))

The Adventures of Errol Flynn

(Self (archive footage))

¡Cuba Sí!

(Self - Cuban Politician (uncredited))

The Padilla Affair

(Self (archive footage))

Soviet Union: The Rise and Fall - Part 2

(Self (archive footage))

Fidel

(Self)

Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist

(Self (archive footage))

Kubánske otázniky

(archívne zábery)

Compromiso con Chile

Chile, el gran desafío

(Himself)

Laboratory Greece

(Self (archive footage))

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes

(Self (archive footage))

Memories of Overdevelopment

(Self (archive footage))

The Mayor

Chile: A Genral Record

CBS Reports: The CIA's Secret Army

(Self)

JFK

(Self (archive footage))

Revolution's Daughter

(Self (archive footage))

638 Ways to Kill Castro

(Self (archive footage))

La Rabbia di Pasolini

(Self (archive footage))

Cuba: In the Shadow of Doubt

Rat Pack

(Self (archive footage))

Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship

(Himself)

A History of an Assignment

(Self (archive footage))

The Boys from Brazil: Rise of the Bolsonaros

(Self (archive footage))

The Fog of War

(Self (archive footage))

I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth

Andança: Os Encontros e as Memórias de Beth Carvalho

The Necessary War

(Himself)

(Self)

Memória Cubana

(Self (archive footage))

The Uncompromising Revolution

(Self)

Cuba and Fidel

(Self)

Hello Cubans

(Self (uncredited))

Did the Mob Kill JFK?

(Self (archive footage))

Island Ablazed

(Himself)

The Day That Lasted 21 Years

(Self (archive footage))

The Kennedy Detail

(Self (archive footage))

My Brother, Fidel

(Self)

Lejos de la isla

(Himself (archive footage))

Venceremos, solidaridad

(Material de archivo)

Waiting for Fidel

(Self)

Becoming Cousteau

(Self (archive footage))

Being Fidel Castro

(Himself (archive footage))

The Cuban Game

(Himself (footage))

Castro in Winter

(Self)

Che Guevara - Hasta La Victoria Siempre

The Hour of the Furnaces

(Himself (archive footage))

Nobody

(Himself)

Fidel Racconta il Che

(Himself)

Un Giorno con Fidel

(Himself)

Cuba 30 Anni Dopo

(Himself)

Ernesto Che Guevara - Uomo, Compagno, Amico

South of the Border

(Self (archive footage))

Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers

(Self)

El Diálogo de América

(Él mismo)

Looking for Fidel

(Himself)

Two Meetings and a Funeral

Fidel Castro: America's Nemesis

(Himself (Archive Footage))

RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy

(Self (archive footage))

General Assembly

(Fidel Castro)

Cuba and the Cameraman

(Self)

Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn

(Himself (Archive Footage))

Celia - la más hermosa flor

Chop Chop Chang: Operation C.H.I.M.P

(Himself)

Another Day of Life

(Himself (archive footage))

Improper Conduct

(Self - Politician (archive footage))

Angola: The War

(Himself - President of Cuba (archive footage))

Muerte al invasor

(Himself (archive footage))

Castro: The World's Most Watched Man

(Himself (archive footage))

Jack Paar: Smart Television

(Self)

Cuba: Battle of the 10,000,000

The CIA's War Against Cuba

Santiago Files

(Self (archive footage))

Elián

(himself)

Cuba, un aller et un retour

(Himself (archive footage))

Cuba, el valor de una utopía

(Himself)

Topaz

(Self (archive footage))

Wasp Network

(Self (archive footage))

I Am a Son of America

(Él mismo)

Oswald's Ghost

(Self (archive footage))

Brascuba

(Self (archive footage))

Cuban Rebel Girls

(Himself (uncredited))

Ethel

(Self (archive footage))

Salvador Allende

(Self (archive footage))

Chavismo: The Plague of the 21st Century

(Self (archive footage))

Amérique latine, l'année de tous les dangers

(Self (archive footage))

Assassinating Franco

(Self)

The War on Democracy

(Self (archive footage))

On Company Business

(Self - Prime Minister of Cuba (archive footage))

El Che

(Self (archive footage))

American Expose: Who Murdered JFK?

(Self (archive footage))

Dear Fidel: Marita's Story

(Self (archive footage))

Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy

(Self (archive footage))

Fidel Castro: Life for the Revolution

(Self)

Naqoyqatsi

(Self (archive footage))

7 Days in Havana

(Self (segment "Diary of a Beginner") (archive footage))

ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium

(Self (archive footage))

The Inconclusive Independence

(Self (archive footage))

A Grin Without a Cat

(Self (archive footage) (uncredited))

Portrait of Castro's Cuba

(Himself)

Mission Mind Control

(Self (archive footage))

The Exploitation of Man by Man

(Self)

Mentiras verdaderas

(Self (archive footage))

Guerilleros

(Self (archive footage))

Informe especial

(Self (archive footage))

Spycraft

(Self)

How to Become a Tyrant

(Self (archive footage))

Faith of the Century: A History of Communism

(Self (archive footage))

Explained

(Self (archive footage))

The Ed Sullivan Show

(Self - Interviewee (archive footage))

Bobby Kennedy for President

(Self (archive footage))

Le Siècle des icônes

(Self (archive footage))

Cuba, la révolution et le monde

La Case du siècle

(Self (archive footage))

Minnesota Experience

(Self (archive footage))