Life in Fidel Castro's Cuba

Fidel Castro's name invokes mixed feelings among world leaders and political analysts. Some call him a revolutionary, a leader of the labourers and working classes, while some call him a dictator and even go to the extent of comparing his rule to the likes of Mao, Hitler and Mussolini. World leaders have been very generous to him and the Prime Minister of India called him a great friend of India. So, who is Fidel Castro and how would history look back at him

1. Fidel Castro was born out of wedlock Fidel Castro's parents,

Ángel Castro and Lina González, were never actually married. His father was a wealthy man. Castro, who was a close follower of Lenin and Marx, actually came from a wealthy background that their theories criticised.

2 . Castro did not start with an armed revolution

Fidel Castro was a lawyer and he had set up a legal practice to provide legal aid to the poor and downtrodden. He opposed the rule of the military dictator Fulgencio Batista. He started filing many legal petitions and advanced constitutional arguments as to why Bastita's rule was not legitimate. But the courts refused to act on this and dismissed his petitions.

3. The Cuban revolution was not an immediate success

Having realised that there was no way that Batista could be overthrown peacefully, Fidel along with his comrades started an armed revolution. This lasted six years, and during this period he lost many of his close allies.

4. The revolution ends and Castro forms a government

Fidel and his men survived various attacks from the Cuban military. During this time, the military dictator lost the support of the Cubans. They were swayed by the promises made by Castro. Batista sensed the imminent defeat and fled to the Dominican Republic. And that brought an end to the war.

5. Castro establishes a socialist society

Soon, Fidel implemented sweeping changes in the economic system. He passed laws to end slavery, and took special interest in the education sector. He ended all forms of private education and brought it under the control of the government.

6. Failed to deliver on the promises of reinstating democracy

Fidel, who promised to reinstate democracy, ended up ruling Cuba for 49 years. He established a single-party system and amended the constitution multiple times.

7. Cubans were not allowed to leave their country without exit visa

Fidel and his government feared that there would be a large amount of migration after the revolution. The laws were made so stringent that the citizens could not leave the country unless they took an exit visa and had a copy of a letter of invitation from the country that they were travelling to.

8. Suppressed fundamental rights

Fidel's regime is marred with human rights abuse. Some of the usual ones are arbitrary imprisonment and torture. Many human rights commissions talked about the presence of mass graves and execution of political opponents. The citizens of Cuba were not allowed the liberty of fair trials.

9. Internet access in Cuba is very limited

Very few people in Cuba have access to open Internet. The government frowns upon any article or blog criticising government policy. Recently, a blogger tried to create an Internet site in an attempt to start an independent source of information, but his site was soon hacked. The hack redirected the users to another web page that severely criticised the blogger. Public shaming is one method that his government used to silence critics. The page was then blocked.

10. The world literally came close to an apocalypse

Under Fidel's rule, the Cuban military sent military advisers and troops to nearly all South American countries to start a fight against the imperialism of the United States. He sent roughly 18,000 Cuban military personnel to help in the Angolan Civil war (Africa). He even allowed the USSR to station nuclear missiles in Cuba, which resulted in a very serious stand-off between the USSR and the USA. This is referred to as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which could have led to the use of nuclear weapons.

11. Castro achieved a lotbut it came at a price

Fidel's pure socialist model made some remarkable achievements. Some of them include eliminating illiteracy and racism, and even making healthcare available for all Cubans. But his egalitarian policies have ensured that there can only be very slow growth in the economy. The country didn't allow its citizens to import cars from abroad till 2008.