White-haired, thin and bent at nearly 90, Fidel Castro in person is a faint echo of the man who remade his country, defied the United States and fueled socialist uprisings around the world.
This combo of three photos shows Fidel Castro, from left; smoking a cigar in Havana, Cuba, April 29, 1961; speaking to the media while on a mission to collect Elian Gonzales in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2000; and at his Havana home on Feb. 13, 2016. The man who nationalized the Cuban economy and controlled virtually every aspect of life on the island celebrates his 90th birthday on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, in a far different country than the one he ruled for decades. (AP Photos)
But 10 years after he handed control to his brother Raul, Cuba’s former leader has taken on a powerful new role in a country suffering an economic crisis and debating its direction in a new era of normalization with Washington.
After a decade out of the public eye, Fidel Castro has surged back in the run-up to his Aug. 13 birthday as the inspiration for Cubans who want to maintain strict Communist orthodoxy in Cuba in the face of mounting pressures to loosen political control and allow more private enterprise.
“We reiterate our commitment to stay faithful to the ideas he’s fought for throughout his life and to keep the spirit of resistance, struggle and dialectic thought alive,” Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, the hard-line second secretary of the Cuban Communist Party told the nation Tuesday at the celebration of Castro’s 1953 attack on a government barracks.
The peak of Castro’s return to public prominence came April 19 at the closing session of the Cuban Communist Party’s 7th Congress. The three-day gathering featured a string of speeches denouncing President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba the month before, in which the U.S. leader called on Cubans to look toward a future of reconciliation and greater freedom.
A tourist looks at quote by Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro explaining in Spanish, ‘Why we say homeland or death,” on a wall at the entrance of a landmark private restaurant in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, July 28, 2016. After a decade out of the public eye, Fidel Castro has surged back in the run-up to his birthday next month as the inspiration for Cubans who want to maintain Communist orthodoxy in the face of mounting pressures to loosen control. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)
Castro opened with a defense of his communist ideology, declaring the Russian Revolution of 1917 to be “a grand social revolution that represented a great step forward in the fight against colonialism and its inseparable companion, imperialism.”
During 47 years in power, Fidel was a constant presence for Cubans but prohibited the statues, portraits and other tributes beloved by other total leaders. Today, his image is everywhere as the country fills with tributes to him on his 90th birthday. Fidel is now mentioned by hardliners in the same breath as Jose Marti, the 19th century poet and revolutionary fighter whose status is similar to that of the founding fathers in the U.S.
“In the ideology of Marti, and the path of Fidel, we’ve been warned about the need to prepare ourselves for a war of ideas, and to be informed, so we can’t be confused,” the head of Cuba’s official journalists’ union wrote Sunday. “We have the historic privilege of having shared our fate with Fidel.”
The editorial went on to reject a series of recent calls by young journalists for greater freedom to work for the foreign press.
“There isn’t the slightest doubt that conservatives who don’t want to advance look for backup in Fidel,” Cuban political scientist and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said. “There’s been a backlash from all of those who fear change.”
There are billboards across the country with Castro’s portrait and best-known phrases. State television is filled with interviews reminiscing about his time in power. Cultural events are dedicated to him. There’s a newly created government email address to send him best wishes on his birthday. A group of students in the central city of Santa Clara even developed a mobile app allowing users to pull up quotations from his written works and speeches.
His family home in the eastern city of Biran has been refurbished and planted with trees.
This June 10, 2016 photo shows the home-turned-museum where Fidel and Raul Castro grew up in Biran, Cuba. Their father Angel planted and sold sugarcane and timber as well as raised cattle here, deep in the lush green hill country of Holguin province in eastern Cuba. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
“I’ve lived through everything and I can tell you that there’ll never be another like him,” said Sara Castillo, a 77-year-old retired nurse. “May he have more years of life and health. He should be the guide for all Cubans.”
But the celebration comes at a tough time for Castro’s dreams of creating a socialist paradise and setting off a leftist wave sweeping Latin America and the rest of the developing world. Cuba has seen allies ousted in Brazil and Argentina and its prime patron, Venezuela, has cut the supply of subsidized oil to Cuba, leading to a cash shortage that’s increasing public dissatisfaction, particularly among the young.
“I’m not interested in Fidel Castro or politics,” said a 21-year-old unemployed former engineering student who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of official retaliation. “They’re the past of this country.”
He said he wants to emigrate as soon as possible to be with his girlfriend in the United States and have a better quality of life.
Other young people say they appreciate Castro, but want their country to focus more on its future.
“He’s the father of a whole generation of Cubans, an important figure, even though there are people against him and people in favor,” said Denet Hernandez, a 29-year-old doctor. “But the youth want to take the reins of their own time. It’s not denying history, but continuing forward.”
Below is a gallery of photos from our archive featuring Fidel Castro through the years.
Cuban guerrilla leader Fidel Castro does some reading while at his rebel base in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra mountains in this 1957 photo. (AP Photo/Andrew St. George)
In this March 14, 1957 photo, Fidel Castro, the young anti-Batista guerrilla leader, center, is seen with his brother Raul Castro, left, and Camilo Cienfuegos, right, while operating in the Mountains of Eastern Cuba. The man who nationalized the Cuban economy and controlled of virtually every aspect of life on the island celebrates his 90th birthday on Saturday. Aug. 13, 2016, in a far different country than the one he ruled for decades. (AP Photo/Andrew St. George)
Fidel Castro gestures as he addresses a crowd of several hundred thousand persons gathered in the park in front of the presidential palace in Havana, Cuba, in Jan. 1959. Castro, leader of Cuba’s revolutionary regime, defends executions of former Batista men. (AP Photo/Harold Valentine)
Fidel Castro, fresh from a visit to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, poses in front of the Capitol. The 32-year-old Cuban Prime Minister paid an unheralded visit to the Capitol April 17, 1959 and chatted with members of the committee. (AP Photo)
In a Sept. 20, 1960 photo, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, left, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev hug at the United Nations. As Castro celebrates his 90th birthday on Aug. 13, 2016, hundreds of thousands of Cubans are running private businesses, buying and selling their homes and cars and checking the internet on imported cell phones. Tens of thousands of Cubans are emigrating to the United States, hollowing out the ranks of highly educated professionals. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
In this Feb. 13, 1961 photo, Prime Minister Fidel Castro went cane cutting with thousands of other volunteer workers, and official announcements said he sliced off over 9,000 pounds of cane. As Fidel Castro turn 90 on Aug. 13, 2016, many Cubans openly describe themselves as capitalists, and say time has proven that Castro’s economic ideas do not work. They praise Cuba’s low crime, its health and educational benefits, its investments in making cultural activities and sports available to all, and its support for putting family and friends before work obligations. (AP Photo)
In this June 14, 1961 photo, Prime Minister Fidel Castro holds a cigar during a news conference in Havana, Cuba. For over half a century, the U.S. government tried many schemes to overthrow the Castro regime: poisonous cigars, an exploding seashell, the secret Twitter-like service in Cuba. U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 the United States will re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba and bring change to the longstanding trade embargo. But it was unclear if all secret operations would cease. (AP Photo/RHS)
Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro replied to President Kennedy’s naval blockade over Cuban radio and television, October 23, 1962. This picture of Castro during his speech was copied from a television monitor in Key West, Florida. To defuse the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy promised not to invade the island nation, but newly declassified documents show he later retreated from the pledge, fearing Cuba could become an `invulnerable base.” The change of heart meant that the U.S.-Soviet understandings that resolved the 1962 crisis were never made permanent. (AP Photo)
South Dakota Senator George McGovern goes for a jeep ride with Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, behind the wheel, during the senator’s visit to Cuba, May 8, 1975. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)
In this Oct. 12, 1979 photo, Cuban President, Fidel Castro, points during his lengthy speech before the United Nations General Assembly, in New York. The man who nationalized the Cuban economy and controlled of virtually every aspect of life on the island celebrates his 90th birthday on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, in a far different country than the one he ruled for decades. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
In this March 1985 photo, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro exhales cigar smoke during an interview at his presidential palace in Havana, Cuba. Castro, a Havana attorney who fought for the poor, overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista’s government on Jan. 1, 1959. As Castro turns 90 on Aug. 13, 2016, it’s an uncertain time, with no settled consensus around his legacy. The government and its backers laud Castro’s nationalism and his construction of a social safety net that provided free housing, education and health care to every Cuban. Less is said about decades of economic stewardship that, along with a U.S. trade embargo, has left Cuba’s infrastructure and its economy cash-strapped and still dependent on billions in aid from abroad. (AP Photo/ Charles Tasnadi)
Cuban President Fidel Castro, right, and African leader Nelson Mandela gesture during the celebration of the “Day of the Revolution” in Matanzas, Saturday, July 27, 1991. Cubans celebrate 38th anniversary of the revolution. (AP Photo)
In this June 8, 2002 photo, Cuban President Fidel Castro delivers a speech during a rally in Santiago, Cuba. The Cuban government has taken a low-key approach to Castro’s 90th birthday on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 . There are no massive rallies or parades planned, no publicly announced visits from global dignitaries. Government ministries have held small musical performances and photo exhibitions that pay tribute to Fidel. An island-wide performance by children’s choruses is the biggest event announced for Saturday’s birthday. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)
In this Feb 3, 2006 photo, Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks during a ceremony granting Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, not seen, UNESCO’s 2005 Jose Marti International Prize at the Revolution Plaza in Havana, Cuba. As Castro nears his 90th birthday on Aug. 13, 2016, the Cuban government has taken a low-key approach to Castro’s birthday. There are no massive rallies or parades planned, no publicly announced visits from global dignitaries. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
In this July 26, 2006 photo, Cuba’s President Fidel Castro pauses as addresses a crowd of Latin American students gathered in Pedernales, in Holguin province, Cuba, for the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks. As Fidel Castro gets ready to celebrate his 90th birthday on Aug. 13, 2016, many Cubans today openly describe themselves as capitalists, and say time has proven that Castro’s economic ideas do not work. (AP Photo/ Javier Galeano)
Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro appears on TV during an interview with Cubavision, on its talk show “Mesa Redonda” or “Round Table”, in Havana, Monday, July 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
In this April 19, 2011 photo, Fidel Castro, left, raises his brother’s hand, Cuba’s President Raul Castro, center, as they sing the anthem of international socialism during the 6th Communist Party Congress in Havana, Cuba. As Fidel gets ready to celebrate his 90th birthday on Aug. 13, 2016, the leader of the Cuban revolution watched as his brother Raul granted Cubans new economic freedoms and declared detente with the United States after a half-century of hostility. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Alex Castro)
Holing images of Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez, right, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, left, supporters attend the closing campaign rally for Venezuela’s acting President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, April 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Pope Francis and Cuba’s Fidel Castro shake hands, in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. The Vatican described the 40-minute meeting at Castro’s residence as informal and familial, with an exchange of books. (AP Photo/Alex Castro)
In this May 1, 2016 photo, soldiers with images of Cuban leader Fidel Castro march during the May Day parade at Revolution Square, in Havana, Cuba. Thousands of people converged on the square for the traditional May Day march. Fidel Castro will turn 90 on Aug. 13. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
In this July 23, 2016 photo, a picture of Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro is placed on the shelves of a state rationing store or “bodega,” ahead of his upcoming 90th birthday in Havana, Cuba. During 47 years in power, Fidel was a constant presence for Cubans but prohibited the statues, portraits and other tributes beloved by other total leaders. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)
In this Tuesday, April 19, 2016 photo, Fidel Castro sits as he clasps hands with his brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, right, and second secretary of the Central Committee, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, moments before the playing of the Communist party hymn during the closing ceremonies of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, in Havana, Cuba. Fidel Castro formally stepped down in 2008 after suffering gastrointestinal ailments and public appearances have been increasingly unusual in recent years. (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate via AP)
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