Fidel castro biography united states

Fidel Castro (1926-)

President of Cuba, communist revolutionary, and implacable foe of U.S. foreign policy, Fidel Castro began his life on a sugar plantation in eastern Cuba.

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The son of wealthy, landowning Cubans, Castro attended several Catholic preparatory schools before entering the University of Havana in the late 1940s. Graduating with a doctorate in law in 1950, Castro's plans for a career in public service were cut short by General Fulgencio Batista's 1952 coup d'etat that returned the former dictator to power. Castro tried to challenge the legitimacy of the Batista regime in court, but his case was dismissed.

Believing that the Batista government would only respond to force, the young revolutionary staged an attack against an army installation in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. After a two-year imprisonment for masterminding the scheme, Castro fled to Mexico where he organized a group of freedom-fighters.

Returning to Cuba late in 1956 with his brother, Raul, and their