From lawyer to revolutionary

Fidel Castro has died. Few political leaders of modern times have been as iconic or as enduring as the Cuban revolutionary, who had turned ninety in August. He had been formally retired since 2008, his younger brother Raúl taking his place two years before, after falling seriously ill, but he had ruled as Cuba's jefe máximo for no less than forty-nine years, and he remained Cuba's undisputed revolutionary patriarch until his death.

Castro had also pursued a career in law - the fact of which is less discussed.

In 1945, Castro began studying law at the University of Havana. Admitting he was ‘politically illiterate’, he became embroiled in student activism, and the violent gangsterismo culture within the university. Passionate about anti-imperialism and opposing US intervention in the Caribbean, he unsuccessfully campaigned for the presidency of the Federation of University Students on a platform of ‘honesty, decency and justice’. Castro became critical of the corruption and violence of President Ramón Grau's government, delivering a public speech on the subject in November 1946 that received coverage on the front page of several newspapers.

 In September 1950; he graduated as a Doctor of Law from University of Havana. He co- founded a legal partnership that primarily catered for poor Cubans, proved a financial failure.

Few years later, Castro, like many others, considered the regime of former president Fulgencio Batista a one-man dictatorship. Batista moved to the right, solidifying ties with both the wealthy elite and the US, severing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, suppressing trade unions and persecuting Cuban socialist groups. Intent on opposing Batista, Castro brought several legal cases against the government, but these came to nothing, and Castro began thinking of alternate ways to oust the regime. The prefaces to the revolutionary chapter in his life just then began and lead to the years that made him the revolutionary we know today.

Fidel's legacy will long remain divisive. Cuba lost its former glory, but its social and economic indicators are the envy of many of its neighbours. The highly restrictive Marxist regime that Fidel put in place all those years ago has loosened up in some ways, there is a great deal of religious freedom in Cuba today, and Cubans, including outspoken political dissidents, come and go freely from the island despite the country still being a one-party state.

From law desk.