In the aftermath of former Cuban President Fidel Castro’s death in 2016, the reaction
from world leaders has been mixed.
While President-elect Donald Trump celebrated Castro’s death, Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau had kind words about the late president, calling him a “larger than life
leader who served his people”.
Meanwhile President Barack Obama stayed neutral, only recognizing Castro’s “enormous impact”.
So what is the controversial legacy of Cuba’s fallen communist leader?
Well, in 1959 Fidel Castro established Cuba as the Western Hemisphere’s first communist
country, after overthrowing the US-backed military dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Castro was a self-declared Marxist-Leninist, and upon taking power, he abolished all private
enterprises, strictly limited the amount of land Cubans could own, and gave the state
sweeping control over housing and consumer goods.
Many rival powers called Castro a ‘tyrant’ and a ‘dictator’, as he shut down opposition
newspapers, jailed those who were critical of him and barred elections.
Castro’s firm grip on the economy left most Cubans trapped in poverty, and during his
nearly 50 years in power, thousands fled to the US.
But to many who stayed in Cuba, Castro was actually quite popular.
Pro-Castro street art was erected in Havana, and large crowds gathered for his long, unscripted
speeches.
Castro was celebrated for reducing illiteracy, bringing electricity to rural communities,
abolishing legal discrimination and building schools and medical facilities.
Castro’s reputation was also complicated abroad.
He was a friend to leftist movements in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Latin America
as he supported them during the Cold War.
For instance in the 1970’s and 80’s, Castro deployed tens of thousands of troops to Angola
to fight South African Apartheid-era forces there.
Upon hearing of Cuba’s intervention, Nelson Mandela issued a statement from jail, praising
Castro for being leader from another continent to help Africans achieve their own freedom,
rather than try to take it away.
Mandela and Castro remained friends until Mandela’s death in 2013.
Castro supported similar movements in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Algeria, Yemen and Libya..
But Castro was a bitter rival to many Western Powers, predominantly the United States.
After embracing communism and aligning Cuba with the Soviet Union, US leaders labeled
him a tyrant and set out to remove him from power through the failed Bay of Pigs invasion
a trade embargo, and allegedly as many as 600 assassination attempts, according to one
Cuban counterintelligence officer.
During much of Castro’s reign subsidies from the Soviet Union kept Cuba’s economy
afloat.
So when the bloc collapsed in 1991, Cuba’s economy crumbled, and the flaws in Castro’s
soviet ideology became increasingly apparent.
In the last decade of his presidency, Castro stubbornly remained in power, even while his
reputation diminished both at home and abroad.
Finally in 2008, he stepped down, appointing his brother, Raul to lead the country.
In the end, Castro’s legacy, along with his achievements, is best described as mixed.
He was a skilled politician, admired for uplifting Cuba’s poor and supporting leftist movements
abroad.
But at the same time, Castro was obsessed with holding on to his power, costing him
diplomatic ties with the United States and, in many cases, damaging the welfare of the
Cuban people.
For nearly half a century, Fidel Castro was at the center of the United States’ unsavory
relationship with Cuba.
But ties between the US and Cuba stem back decades before Castro’s Communist Revolution.
So what is the history of their complicated relationship?
Find out in this video.
Castro took ownership of all U.S.-owned businesses in Cuba including oil refineries, factories,
and casinos.
In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ceased diplomatic relations and trade, later
expanded into a foreign embargo by John F. Kennedy.
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