Fidel Castro
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Fidel Alejandro Castro Rúz (born August 13 1926) has ruled Cuba since 1959. Therefore he is the longest ruling Head of State. He temporarily gave power to his brother Raúl Castro while recovering from surgery in summer of 2006.
Fidel Castro has a doctorate of law from the University of Havana. He is a lawyer.
He came to power after he and his guerrilla soldiers overthrew the dictatorship of General Fulgencio Batista.
Fidel Castro is a communist, and he made Cuba the first communist country of the Americas. During the Cold War he was a friend of the Soviet Union. An important moment of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. In 1961 the United States of America tried to invade Cuba. This made the Soviet Union want to place Missiles on Cuba, close to the United States, so that this would not happen again. A big war almost started between the Soviet Union and the USA.
Some people, particularly in the United States, call Castro a dictator; they also criticize him, because they think he has committed human rights violations, like torture, murder and oppression of freedom of speech, both at home and in African countries where he sent Cuban soldiers to spread Communism. Other people do not think this is true. For example, Nelson Mandela has spoken in support of Castro and has thanked him for aid to Africa. Amnesty International criticized Cuba's human rights record but noted slow progress in July of 2002. Supporters of Castro say he gave Cuba the best health care and education of Latin America.
