【明報專訊】On 19 April 2011 Fidel Castro (卡斯特羅), the Cuban leader who led a revolution against the US-backed authoritarian government, stepped down as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. That marked the end of an era.

Castro and the Cuban Revolution

Born of a sugar planter in 1926, Fidel Castro became a lawyer and worked on behalf of the poor.

1952 saw a major event in Cuba. Fulgencio Batista (巴迪斯達), a former Cuban president (from 1940 to 1944) who had just returned to politics and become a candidate of the 1952 presidential election, staged a military coup and overthrew the government. In 1953, Castro organised a rebellion against Batista, which failed. Castro was imprisoned.

After he had been released from jail, Castro went to Mexico, where he and others, including Che Guevara (哲古華拉), continued to plot Batista's overthrow. In 1956, he led an armed expedition back to Cuba. A guerrilla (游擊隊) uprising comprised of July 26 Movement (led by Castro) and other nationalist rebellious elements culminated in the Battle of Santa Clara - under Che Guevara's command - on New Year's Day of 1959. Batista was forced to flee the country. Castro became Cuba's leader.

The Communist Cuba

Castro is a communist (共產主義者) - a follower of Karl Marx's (馬克思的) philosophy. No sooner had he come to power than he set out to nationalise (國有化) private businesses, expropriate (充公) US-owned land and businesses, vastly expand health services and eliminate illiteracy (文盲). But he also ruthlessly suppressed all opposition, banning all political groups except the Communist Party.

Castro's leadership posed a direct challenge to the US as well as a threat to its interests. American multinationals (跨國公司) had been awarded lucrative deals by the Batista administration. The US attempted to get Castro overthrown. That led to the Bay of Pigs Invasion (豬灣事件) in April 1961. A paramilitary group funded by the CIA (中央情報局) of the US landed at several places along the coast, including the Bay of Pigs. But the invasion force was quickly defeated. More than 1,100 men were imprisoned, much to the embarrassment of President John Kennedy's (約翰•甘迺迪) administration.

The failed invasion led to a more serious incident - the Cuban missile crisis (古巴導彈危機). In October 1962, a US spy plan detected a Soviet ballistic missile (彈道導彈) on a launching site in Cuba. President Kennedy placed a naval blockade around the island. Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union escalated, and many thought that would result in the Third World War. The crisis was resolved when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (赫魯曉夫) agreed to have the missiles removed and the US agreed to withdraw American missiles from Turkey and never to invade Cuba again.

Recent developments

In 2008 Castro stepped down as President of Cuba and was succeeded by Ra�yl Castro (勞爾), his younger brother. Since Ra�yl took office, Cuba's relations with the US have been normalising. In 2014 President Barack Obama and Ra�yl Castro simultaneously announced a new course in relations between the two countries. In July 2015 the Embassy of the US re-opened in Havana and the Cuban Embassy re-opened in Washington, DC. A bilateral arrangement to restore scheduled air services between the US and Cuba was signed; scheduled service is expected to commence later in 2016.

However, the US's embargo (禁運) against Cuba, which prohibits American corporations from doing business in Cuba, is still in force. Obama called for lifting the embargo in his last State of the Union address in January 2016. On March 20 Obama went to Cuba and became the first American president to visit the island in 80 years.