How old is castro of cuba

Who was Fidel Castro? US - Cuba Relations Learn More about Cuba and Castro. From Our Collection. Castro was himself arrested and put on trial for conspiring to overthrow the Cuban government.

During his trial, he argued that he and his rebels were fighting to restore democracy to Cuba, but he was nonetheless found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Two years later, Batista felt confident enough in his power that he granted a general amnesty to all political prisoners, including Castro. On December 2, , Castro and 81 armed men landed on the Cuban coast. All of them were killed or captured except for Castro, Raul, Che, and nine others, who retreated into the Sierra Maestra mountain range to wage a guerrilla war against the Batista government.

Castro was supported by the peasantry, to whom he promised land reform, while Batista received aid from the United States, which bombed suspected revolutionary positions.

By mid, a number of other Cuban groups were also opposing Batista, and the United States ended military aid to his regime. Batista fled for the Dominican Republic on January 1, The United States initially recognized the new Cuban dictator but withdrew its support after Castro launched a program of agrarian reform, nationalized U.

The discovery of the missiles by U. Castro took great delight in the fact that none of the attempts ever succeeded and was quoted as saying that if avoiding assassination attempts was an Olympic sport, he would have won gold medals.

Castro's regime has been credited with opening 10, new schools and increasing literacy to 98 percent. Cubans enjoy a universal healthcare system, which has decreased infant mortality to 11 deaths in 1, 1. But at the same time, civil liberties were whittled away, as labor unions lost the right to strike, independent newspapers were shut down and religious institutions were harassed. Castro removed opposition to his rule though executions and imprisonments, as well as through forced emigration.

Though there are no exact numbers, the Cuba Archive estimates that tens of thousands were murdered, with a documented 5, killed by firing squads alone. Even more Cubans were killed by state forces when they tried to flee the country, which occurred during the Canimar River Massacre and the Tugboat Massacre of During Castro's rule, hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the country, many settling just across the Florida Straits in Miami.

The largest of these exoduses occurred in when Castro opened up the port of Mariel to allow exiled Cubans living in Miami to come claim their relatives. Upon their arrival, Castro also loaded the ships with Cuban prison inmates and mentally ill people. In all, nearly , Cubans left their homeland in to find sanctuary in the United States.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union sent Cuba's economy into a tailspin, Castro's revolution began to lose momentum. Without cheap oil imports and an eager Soviet market for Cuban sugar and other goods, Cuban unemployment and inflation grew. The contraction of the Cuban economy resulted in 85 percent of its markets disappearing. Yet Castro was very adept at keeping control of the government during dire economic times.

He pressed the United States to lift the economic embargo, but it refused. Castro then adopted a quasi-free market economy and encouraged international investment. He also legalized the U. In , after massive damage was caused by Hurricane Michelle, Castro declined U. President George W. Bush 's administration assented and authorized the shipment. With the fuel supply running dangerously low, Castro ordered factories to be closed and sent thousands of Cuban doctors to Venezuela in exchange for oil imports.

In the late s, speculation began to arise over Castro's age and well-being. Numerous health problems had been reported over the years, the most significant occurring in , when Castro underwent surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding. Following Castro's surgery, his only appearances were in photographs and video recordings of meetings. On February 19, , year-old Castro permanently gave up the Cuban presidency due to his deteriorating physical condition. In April , news broke that Castro officially stepped down from his role within Cuba's Communist Party.

Castro claimed that he had actually resigned the post five years earlier. In his retirement, Castro began writing a column about his experiences and opinions, called "Reflections of Fidel," and in his autobiography My Life was published. From mid-November to early January , however, Castro failed to publish any columns.

This sudden silence sparked rumors that Castro had taken a turn for the worse. But these stories soon proved to be unfounded, as Castro put out a flurry of articles later that January. Though not involved in the day-to-day affairs of running Cuba, Castro still maintained a certain degree of political influence both at home and abroad. He continued to meet with foreign leaders, such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in , during their visits to Cuba.

Castro arrived in Havana a week later and soon took over as prime minister. At the same time, revolutionary tribunals began trying and executing members of the old regime for alleged war crimes. In , Castro nationalized all U.

This prompted the United States to end diplomatic relations and impose a trade embargo that still stands today. Their plans ended in disaster, however, partially because a first wave of bombers missed their targets and a second air strike was called off.

Ultimately, more than exiles were killed and nearly everyone else was captured. Castro publicly declared himself a Marxist - Leninist in late Ostracized by the United States, Cuba was becoming increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for economic and military support.

After a day standoff, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the nukes against the wishes of Castro, who was left out of the negotiations. In return, U. President John F. Kennedy publicly consented not to reinvade Cuba and privately consented to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey. After taking power, Castro abolished legal discrimination, brought electricity to the countryside, provided for full employment and advanced the causes of education and health care, in part by building new schools and medical facilities.

But he also closed down opposition newspapers, jailed thousands of political opponents and made no move toward elections. Moreover, he limited the amount of land a person could own, abolished private business and presided over housing and consumer goods shortages. With political and economic options so limited, hundreds of thousands of Cubans, including vast numbers of professionals and technicians, left Cuba, often for the United States.