Fidel Castro: The Life of the Cuban Leader

Mexico City, Mexico --- 12/7/1956-Mexico City, Mexico: The leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruiz, rests on his cot after he was detained by Mexican immigration authorities for training troops for the uprising, which he launched shortly after this picture was taken. Castro was released on bond. On December 7, a report form Havana, Cuba, announced that government warplnes had bombed and strafed a rebel hideout in the Sierra Maestra foothills in the Oriente province. Complete Caption in Envelope --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Rebel leader Fidel Castro (C) being cheered by a village crowd on his victorious march to Havana. (Photo by Grey Villet//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

1959 Fidel and Ernest Hemingway, Habvna(Alberto Korda)IMG_0046.

Fidel Castro talks with Ed Sullivan, television variety show host and N.Y. Daily News columnist, January 6, 1959. (AP Photo/Harold Valentine)

1960 Fidel speaking before millions, (Raul Corrales.)IMG_0111.J

1961 Abril 9,Fidel and Ricardo Alarcon on national TV, (Liborio

Picture taken in the early 60's of the Cuban Revolution leaders, Fidel Castro (R), Prime Minister of the Cuban Revolutionary government and first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, and Ernesto Guevara (L) known as Che, minister of Industry, during a popular meeting in Havana. Castro, Latin America's sole surviving Communist strongman, ceded power late 31 July 2006 to his brother Raul on a temporary basis for the first time in 47 years, after undergoing what he called delicate intestinal surgery. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read OFF/AFP/Getty Images)

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, lower right, sits inside a tank near Playa Giron, Cuba, during the Bay of Pigs invasion, in this April 17, 1961 photo provided by Granma, the Cuban government newspaper. About 1,500 Cuban exiles, supported by the CIA, landed in Cuba in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on April 17, 1961 with the purpose of sparking a popular uprising and ousting the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Most rebels were quickly captured or killed by the Cuban armed forces (CP Photo/Granma/Raul Corrales)

HAVANA, CUBA: Cuban leader Fidel Castro Ruz cuts sugar cane in a Cuban field 10 October 10 1962. (Photo credit should read AFP/Getty Images)

October 14, 2012 marks 50 years since the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis CUBA - OCTOBER 22: Prime Minister Fidel CASTRO giving a radio and televised speech during which he speaks about the measures taken by the United States regarding Cuba. In fact, following the shipment of Soviet Union missiles to Cuba during the Cold War, the United States announced a blockade of the island. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

1963 Fidel,Raul and CHE, (Osvaldo Salas).IMG_0125.JPG

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Cuban President Fidel Castro shown in file photo dated May 1963 holding the hand of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during an offical visit to Moscow. (Photo credit should read AFP/Getty Images)

Cuba's Prime Minister Fidel Castro gets set to fire a ball as he pitches for Camaguey Province against Pinar Del Rio Province at Cuba's Veradero Beach July 5,1964. Castro pitched nine innings and had a perfect game for seven innings. Camaguey won 14-4. He wore his old Oriente Province uniform instead of the Camguey uniform. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this March 8, 1977 photo Cuba Leader Fidel Castro sits with Moammar Gadhafi in Tripoli. A U.S. official says Libya's new government has told the United States that Moammar Gadhafi is dead. The official said Libya's Transitional National Council informed U.S. officials in Libya of the development Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. (AP Photo)

Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro exhales cigar smoke during a March, 1985 interview at his presidential palace in Havana. Castro, a Havana attorney who fought for the poor, overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista's government on Jan. 1, 1959. He defeated a U.S. attempt, known as The Bay of Pigs invasion, to overthrow his revolutionary regime on April 19, 1961. Afterwards, Cuba armed itself with Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at the United States which almost brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. Castro's communist regime still exists in Cuba, 90 miles from the U.S., at the close of the 20th century. (AP Photo/ Charles Tasnadi)

1994 Fidel during the August 5 riots that sparked the Rafters C

1995 Dec. 1, Fidel visiting the Great Wall in China,

Pope John Paul II shakes hands with Cuban President Fidel Castro 21 January after Castro gave his welcoming speech at Jose Marti International Airport. During the flight to Cuba, the Pope told the press travelling with him that he would urge the United States to lift the 36-year-old embargo on Cuba. \"I will tell them: change, change,\" he said. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/Michel GANGNE (Photo credit should read MICHEL GANGNE/AFP/Getty Images)

Cuban president Fidel Castro (2nd R) talks with Elian Gonzalez (L), 14 July 2001 in Cardenas, Cuba during a political gathering to inaugurate \"Museo a la Batalla de Ideas\" where a diverse range of objects relating to Elian's custody battle in with the US is being exhibited. To the right is Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez was aboard an overcrowded motorboat that capsized en route from Cuba to Florida, killing his mother and her boyfriend along with others seeking to enter the United States illegally. He was rescued off Florida 25 November 1999, and then was at the center of a seven-month custody tug-of-war that culminated in US federal agents seizing him by force from Miami-based relatives. He was returned to Cuba one year ago. AFP PHOTO/ADALBERTO ROQUE (Photo credit should read ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images)

Former South African President Nelson Mandela and Cuban leader Fidel Castro embrace during a visit by Castro Sunday, Sept. 2, 2001 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Castro was in Durban, South Africa to participate in the World Conference Against Racism. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)

405366 01: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (R) and Cuban President Fidel Castro (C) talk after a friendly game of baseball at the Latinoamericano Stadium May 14, 2002 in Havana, Cuba. This is the first visit by a former or sitting U.S. President since Castro came to power in 1959. (Photo by Jorge Rey/Getty Images)

(FILE) - Picture taken 23 December 2003 of Cuban President Fidel Castro (L) and his brother Raul during the last meeting of the Cuban Parliament. Cuban President Fidel Castro wrote a letter saying he underwent surgery and temporarily hands power to his brother, Raul Castro, 31 July 2006 in Havana. AFP PHOTO / Adalberto ROQUE (Photo credit should read ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images)

(NYT1) HAVANA -- Feb. 19, 2008 -- CUBA-CASTRO-1 -- Two women hold up the latest edition of Granma bearing the headline \"Message from the Commander in Chief,\" Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 in Havana. Castro stepped down Tuesday morning as the president of Cuba after a long illness, according to Granma, the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party. His resignation ends one of the longest tenures as one of the most all-powerful communist heads of state in the world. In the background at top a portrait of revolutionary hero Che Guevara on a poster which reads \"Until Victory, Always.\" At bottom a photo of Castro around the time of the 1959 revolution. (Jose Goitia/The New York Times)

YEAR-2008 Cuban former president Fidel Castro (C),is seen on June 18, 2008 in Havana during a meeting with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (L) and his brother and new Cuban President Raul Castro (R). Castro, 81, looked thin but animated as he spoke in a garden with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his brother, Cuban President Raul Castro in the first images released of the convalescing former president since January. AFP PHOTO/ESTUDIOS REVOLUCION (Photo credit should read ESTUDIOS REVOLUCION/AFP/Getty Images)

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro speaks during a meeting with students at Havana's University September 3, 2010. Castro warned on Friday again of the dangers of nuclear war in his first speech before the Cuban public since falling ill in 2006. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan (CUBA - Tags: POLITICS)

Fidel Castro makes a surprise appearance at the 6th Communist Party Congress in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday April 19, 2011. Raul Castro, right, was named first secretary of Cuba's Communist Party on Tuesday, with his aging brother Fidel not included in the leadership for the first time since the party's creation 46 years ago. Despite raising hopes during the gathering that a new generation of leaders was poised to take up important positions, Raul announced that Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, left, an 80-year-old longtime confidante, would be his No. 2. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

HAVANA, CUBA - JANUARY 08: Fidel Castro, Cuba's former President and revolutionary leader, looks at the camera during a rare public appearance to attend the inauguration of an art gallery on January 8, 2014 in Havana, Cuba. Castro, who ceded power to his brother Raul Castro in 2008 after falling ill in 2006, has last been seen in public in February 2013 at a National Assembly meeting. The gallery Castro visited is run by Cuban artist Alexis Leyva, aka Kcho. (Photo by Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo/Getty Images)

Cuba's Fidel Castro, right, speaks with China's President Xi Jinping in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. Xi Jinping said that his state visit to Cuba is aimed at carrying forward the traditional friendship between the two countries jointly built by Castro and the older generations of Chinese leaders, so as to inject new impetus into bilateral cooperation. He also extended good wishes to Castro for his upcoming 88th birthday. (AP Photo/Alex Castro)