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AFTER SURVIVING MORE than 600 assassination attempts, defying 10 US presidents, and shaping half a century of history, Fidel Castro turns 90 today.
Here are six snapshots of this magnetic, polarising giant of the 20th century, who has beaten the odds to hang on well into the 21st.
The survivor
The years have left their mark on the father of the Cuban Revolution, who transferred power to his younger brother Raul 10 years ago.
His long black beard has turned a wispy gray. He has given up his iconic Cohiba cigars. He rarely appears in public.
But Fidel lives on.
No one could have predicted his place in history when he launched his revolutionary career with a botched attack on Cuba’s Moncada military barracks in 1953.
The 26-year-old lawyer was captured and jailed for the failed raid, which ended with dozens of rebels killed or executed by dictator Fulgencio Batista’s forces.
Fast forward six years, and Castro was triumphantly rolling into Havana, having returned from exile to lead a guerrilla army that once numbered just 12 men to defeat Batista and his military of 80,000.
The unlikely victory brought the “red menace” of Communism to the United States’ doorstep at the height of the Cold War.
Alarmed, the US Central Intelligence Agency and Cuban exiles tried to assassinate Castro 634 times, his ex-intelligence chief, Fabian Escalante, has estimated.
Castro once told Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet he nearly always carried his Browning pistol just in case.
But he denied reports he wore a bullet-proof vest.
“I have a moral vest. It’s strong. It has always protected me,” he told journalists in 1979, baring his chest to prove the point.
The seducer
“I was so impressed! I could only look at his face and say, ‘I love him,’” says Mercedes Gonzalez, 59, who has only seen Castro twice up close. But she says she felt an overpowering attraction.
With his rugged rebel look and imposing persona, Castro has long fascinated people, and women in particular.
“He projects a very attractive public image,” says Salomon Susi, the author of book Dictionary of Fidel Castro’s Thoughts.
It’s part of his legend.
Officially, Castro has been married twice and fathered seven children by three women.
Rumors of secret affairs and more children abound.
But he keeps his private life to himself.
“Private life, in my opinion, should not be an instrument for publicity or politics,” he said in 1992.
The enemy
Castro defined himself in opposition to the American “empire”, and the resentment lingers to this day.
After Barack Obama sealed the two nations’ historic rapprochement by visiting Cuba in March, Castro told Cubans not to be fooled by the US president’s “syrupy words”.
He recalled the island’s long enmity with the US, including Washington’s backing for the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
His bitterness over that botched CIA plot played a part in pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year, when the Soviet Union agreed to his request to send ballistic missiles to Cuba.
You don’t want to be on Castro’s bad side.
He opened his half-century of iron-fisted rule in 1959 by jailing one of his own guerrilla commanders, Huber Matos, for 20 years when he criticised the new regime’s turn toward Communism.
Castro meted out even harsher treatment to Cuban dissidents.
“He is the man of ‘E’s: egomaniacal, egotistical, egocentric,” said Martha Beatriz Roque, 71, an anti-Castro dissident who was one of 75 opponents jailed in the “black spring” of 2003.
I will remember him as a dictator.
The underdog
Castro had a penchant for trying to pull off the seemingly impossible.
In 1961, he all but eradicated illiteracy with an ambitious rural education campaign.
When the exodus of Cuban exiles left the country with just 3,000 doctors, he vowed to make the island a “medical superpower”. Today it has 88,000 doctors and one of the most respected health systems in the world.
Other projects were less successful.
In 1970, with Cuba’s economy strangled by the US embargo, he ordered a nationwide campaign to harvest a record-shattering 10 million tons of sugar.
Despite mobilising Cubans en masse to work the fields, the campaign failed.
Cubans are all too used to “Fidel Plans” that never quite pan out, like the ones to raise buffalo or turn Cuba into a world-class cheese producer despite a shortage of cows.
The icon
Castro was a hero to revolutionary movements and independence struggles worldwide.
He sent 386,000 troops to fight in spots where the Cold War turned hot: Angola, Ethiopia, the Congo, Algeria and Syria. And he backed leftist guerrillas across Latin America.
The military results were mixed. But the symbolism was powerful.
“He’s the most important personality of the 20th century in the Western hemisphere,” said Ivan Marquez, second-in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Castro’s revolution “ignited… the desire to struggle, to take to the mountains, to grab a rifle and try to change things,” Marquez told AFP.
The myth
As Castro gave his speech proclaiming the triumph of the revolution in 1959, a white dove landed on his shoulder. The man had officially become the myth.
In a country where Catholicism blends with African religions, Cubans say Castro is protected by Obatala, the most powerful of the “orisha” divinities.
Some thought him immortal, until a health crisis forced him to give up power in 2006.
Still, he survived.
Last April, however, he seemed to say goodbye.
“Soon I’ll be like all the rest. Everyone’s turn comes,” he said.
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Why can’t they be renovated into permanent accommodation? And why would it cost so much?
O’Devaney Gardens flats were renovated only a few years ago. They were all fitted with new double glazed windows and shortly afterwards half the flats were knocked down.
New windows isn’t renovating. Renovating is ripping everything out, new electrics, plumbing, insulation and warm boards put in. I lived in Germany on a 10th floor apartment just like Ballymun but inside was new. It was great. It shouldn’t cost more than 25k for each apartment from start to finish
It shouldn’t Niall. But this is Ireland.
Obviously no brown envelopes for councillors in housing the homeless…….. Corrupt gangsters
Is it possible for The Journal to publish a breakdown of how each individual councillor on the council voted on this motion ?
FF and FG against it, labour abstained and all others in favour of halting the development.
Might have been a short term solution, but would imagine people in hotels would have been glad of it as a stepping stone, especially as they were expected to be ready by September.
Absolute waste of money. It was a knee jerk reaction to the housing crisis. They can take millions from property tax and motor tax to fund irish water but they can’t build public housing for the homeless?
Maybe a few more deaths near government buildings and we’ll get a proper, sustainable solution to this mess.
Andy doyle u will answers in 30 years
Dont forget the mone from the pension reserve fund.
Not to worry, Alan Kelly is building 35,000 new homes and he’s going to house everybody and everybody’s granny by 2018. Sure I saw him myself digging away with his shovel. Or was he installing a water meter? Because Kelly’s water metering seems to have come to a standstill.
Yes Con.
You mean digging a bigger for himself
Hole was in the text but it’s gone walking . Sorry
Junkies have been the scourge of the genuine homeless person for a good few years now ,taking up spaces in homeless shelthers hosthels in dublin and turning them into smack houses while forcing genuine people with genuine problems out onto the street ,no genuine person or family who finds themselves in this unfortunate situation would feel safe in shelters with the carry on of these low lifes who are thrown out of the shelters from nine to five every day to cause havoc on the people of the city centre and surrounding areas ,all gathering at the board walk on the liffey buying selling and banging up and drinking ,maybe this shower of over paid idiots should of sparing a taught for the genuine homeless people before making this decission ,and also get up of their fat asses and clear up the mess these junkies are creating in dublin
What a disgrace. These properties could have saved a life or 50!
The last place I would house anyone is O’Devaney Gardens. A total, (and extremely dangerous) kip.
What’s your reason to make this comment ?
Strange old country, we have people who come here to flee persecution, they claim asylum , get somewhere to live , get fed, get pocket money, access to education (including now third level) and free legal assistance to help them stay here. But some of our own citizens sleep in doorways and b+b’s and no one seems to care.
Fleeing persecution is an entirely different issue with entirely different social problems to homelessness.
Value for money? these people need homes. I understand that cost has to come into it somehow but where are the savings proposed to be made? Talking shops as usual
Has everyone gone bonkers??? Why are we even considering housing homeless people in the center of the most expensive city in the state? There are plenty of perfectly fine houses in Leitrim that are ready to move into and would cost a fraction! We are so Dublin centered it’s costing us a fortune and no one even realises!
Was mannix flynn the one who voted for taxing buskers,
And auld christy burke claimed to not know a certain criminal who was convicted of peadophilia in sherriff street dublin even though the whole inner city dublin knew christy was lying through his teeth ,i wouldnt trust christy as far as i throw him , and hes lord f&%cking mayor ,how the hell can this happen ,
Mannix actually voted against the busking bye-laws
I’ve managed to find work through 2 recessions since 1979. And pay my own way.
Well done to you
Good for you Denis, so did I doesn’t mean I expect everyone else to be so lucky…
Luck is a myth, good fortune is earned.
Ye if you’re not playing a rigged game
The councillors are right. This is an extortionate amount of money to spend on a temporary fix that will be knocked down in a few years. there are plenty of places they could spend the money on and get a permanent solution that’s in better condition – here’s ten homes for sale on daft, for example http://www.daft.ie/commercial/10-19-wesley-place-clanbrassil-street-dublin-8-dublin/221003/
Buy them and put homeless people in there and save money too. Well done the councillors.
The Todd. If they need a home what they could do is get a job and pay for it like the rest of us.
Because we live in a job saturated economy? People that are homeless don’t even receive any welfare because they don’t have an address. That’s why it’s called a poverty trap
If only it was so easy Denis there would be no homeless people. Try joining the dots…
Actually Todd that’s not true, they do receive welfare, however, in some circumstances they can’t receive rent allowance.
I stand corrected
Talking about homelessness and the council starts mentioning “value for money” Maggie Thatcher is alive and well and living in Dublin and voting on council decisions…
And tomorrow, SF will express their outrage at the way homeless people are being treated…
No they won’t ,they aren’t politically stupid despite what anyone thinks , how the Fcuk could they have got this far in irish politics north and south without having insider knowledge ,they are part of the establishment.
If they do O’Reilly it will be more then what the government (FG & Lab) or FF are doing….
Common sense.
Let the govenment do the right thing. Build more social houses.
Christy Burke seems to have a lot of clout.
Surprised himself and Mannix are at odds on this one.
Tommy Newman
When is the last time you can remember the government doing the right thing ?
There is no money in this for the government, it would be against the covenant of corporate government.
Simple. Make them homeless until they reach a viable solution.
Lumping a whole lot of socially deprived people into one building where their children will be labelled and their self esteem will plumett even though there are hundreds of empty houses around the country available right now! !! Have we learned nothing from all the previous planning errors made in the past???
Nothing new here . Owen Keegan will do what Owen Keegan wants to do , ruling Dublin like a true dictator.
Thank you.
One of th reasons given for not do this was that it was a short term solution for people and didnt offer a solution to people. Yet their funding one homeless charity to have 50 people a night sleep in the floor on yoga mats is that a desirable solution???
It would depend on the funding being €80k per yoga mat and how long they could use the yoga mat for.
Sounds flippant, but that’s the reality (though I do expect there’s more than a enough NIMBYism going on here too. Spending €5m on a temporary solution for 60 people for 5 years (refurb of these flats) is quite different to spending €5m on a temporary solution for 600 people for 5 years (yoga mats in a homeless shelter).
There’s absolutely a problem but this isn’t the way to go about it. I do hope that €5m is put to better use for the homeless.
Yet another example of wasted resources under the mismanagement by politicians and vested groups. Please sell all unused property to developers for repurposing. At least sell development rights so that the land can be used for some sane purpose as opposed to idling it for the sake of indecision.
O’Devaney gardens is a rotten hellhole and condemning families to living there is a sentence and nothing more. The place isn’t fit for rats. It’s certainly not fit for vulnerable families.
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