Fidel Castro A life in six snapshots

The survivor 

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 plot, 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 confided 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 enemy 

Castro defined himself in opposition to the American "empire," and the resentment lingered to the end. You don't want to be on Castro's bad side. He began his half-century of iron-fisted rule in 1959 by jailing one of his own guerrilla commanders, Huber Matos, for 20 years when he criticized the new regime's turn toward Communism. Many more crackdowns would follow. Human Rights Watch sharply criticized Castro's "highly effective machinery of repression" across the decades: Basic civil and political rights were outlawed, and dissidents were jailed, tortured, executed or forced into exile.

A woman reacts during a homage ceremony in Venezuela; Photo: AFP, Reuters

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 said Castro was protected by Obatala, the most powerful of the "orisha" divinities. Some thought him immortal. But last April, he seemed to say goodbye. "Soon I'll end up like all the rest. Everyone's turn comes," he said.

The seducer

"I was so impressed! I could only look at his face and say, 'I love him,'" says Mercedes Gonzalez, a Cuban admirer who saw him twice in the flesh. With his rugged rebel look and imposing persona, Castro has long fascinated people, and women in particular. Officially, Castro was married twice and fathered seven children by three women. Rumors of secret affairs and more children abounded. But he kept his private life to himself. "Private life, in my opinion, should not be an instrument for publicity or politics," he said in 1992.

Students light candles in honour of him in Honduras, a day after his death in Havana. Photo: AFP, Reuters

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 an exodus of Cuban exiles left the country with just 3,000 remaining 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 a US embargo, he ordered a nationwide campaign to harvest a record-shattering 10 million tons of sugar. Despite mobilizing 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 in an interview before Castro's death.