How Did Fidel Castro Rise To Power

Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, Cuba. Castro’s’ father was a wealthy Spanish sugarcane farmer who first came to Cuba during the Cuban War of Independence and his mother was a servant for his father’s family. After attending a couple of Jesuit schools where he excelled at baseball, Castro enrolled as a law student at the University of Havana. While there, he became interested in politics, joining the anti-corruption Orthodox Party.
From 1940 to 1944, Fulgencio Batista served as President of Cuba and became President for the second time in 1952, after gaining power in a military coup and cancelling the 1952 elections. From 1952 to 1959 Batista proved far more dictatorial and indifferent to popular concerns. While Cuba remained …show more content…
He began with the attack on the Moncada Barracks on 26 July 1953. The attack failed and most of the rebels involved were captured, imprisoned or killed. Throughout the late 50s, there were several battles between Castro’s guerilla fighters and the Cuban army. Castro's forces, at their peak numbering 800, were able to take the country in 1959. Batista fled in the early hours of January 1, 1959, fulfilling Castro's promise that they would take the country by 1959. From there, Castro went to set up his revolutionary government, incorporating the mountain guerrilla forces from the revolution as top of the government, and eventually naming himself head. He took power legally, promised free elections within 18 months but never held these elections and began eliminating opposition thru fear and terror. Critics of Castro always point out his treatment of opposition as a bad record regarding human rights; jail, torture, death, no freedom of press or speech. As a guerrilla fighter he was very nationalist; however after the Bay of Pigs, he declares himself a Marxist to gain help from the USSR. USA labeled him a Communist and was therefore a