Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (lahir 13 Agustus 1926; umur 88 tahun) adalah Presiden Kuba sejak 1976 hingga 2008. Sebelumnya, ia menjabat sebagai Perdana Menteri atas penunjukannya pada Februari 1959 setelah tampil sebagai komandan revolusi yang gagal Presiden Dewan Negara merangkap jabatan sebagai Dewan Menteri Fulgencio Batista pada tahun 1976. Castro tampil sebagai sekretaris pertama Partai Komunis Kuba (Communist Party of Cuba) pada tahun 1965 dan mentransformasikan Kuba ke dalam republik sosialis satu-partai. Setelah tampil sebagai presiden, ia tampil sebagai komandan Militer Kuba. Pada 31 Juli 2006, Castro menyerahkan jabatan kepresidenannya kepada adiknya, Raúl untuk beberapa waktu.Pada tahun 1947, ia ikut dalam upaya kudeta diktator Republik Dominika Rafael Trujillo dan lari ke New York (Amerika Serikat) karena adanya ancaman akan dihabisi lawan politiknya. Setelah meraih doktor di bidang hukum pada 1950, ia memprotes dan memimpin gerakan bawah tanah anti-pemerintah atas pengambil-alihan kekuasaan lewat kudeta oleh Fulgencio Batista pada 1952. Tahun 1953, ia memimpin serangan ke barak militer Moncada Santiago de Cuba, namun gagal. Sebanyak 69 orang dari 111 orang yang ambil bagian dalam serbuan itu tewas dan ia dipenjara selama 15 tahun.
Setelah mendapatkan pengampunan dan dibebaskan pada 15 Mei 1955, ia langsung memimpin upaya penggulingan diktator Batista. Perlawanan ini kemudian dikenal dengan Gerakan 26 Juli. Pada 7 Juli 1955, ia lari ke Meksiko dan bertemu dengan pejuang revolusioner Che Guevara. Bersama 81 orang lainnya, ia kembali ke Kuba pada 2 Desember 1956 dan melakukan perlawanan gerilya selama 25 bulan di Pegunungan Sierra Maestra. Di luar Kuba, Castro mulai menggalang kekuatan untuk melawan dominasi Amerika Serikat dan bekas negara Uni Soviet. Setelah runtuhnya Uni Soviet pada tahun 1991, cita-cita dan impiannya mulai diwujudkan dengan bertemu Hugo Chávez di Venezuela dan Evo Morales dari Bolivia.
Menjelang hari ulang tahunnya ke-80 yang jatuh pada 13 Agustus 2006, ia menyerahkan tampuk kepemimpinannya untuk sementara waktu kepada adiknya. Praktis, Raúl merangkap jabatan, yakni sebagai Presiden Kuba dan Menteri Pertahanan Kuba. Penyerahan kekuasaan ini merupakan pertama kali sejak ia memerintah Kuba pada 1959. Castro juga meminta perayaan ulang tahunnya yang ke-80 ditunda sampai 2 Desember 2006. Padahal, pesta meriah selama empat hari di jalan-jalan utama Havana sudah disiapkan, termasuk konser megah dari musisi dan penyanyi Amerika Latin. Kesehatan Castro sempat menurun setelah jatuh ketika berpidato pada 2004. Waktu itu, lutut kiri dan lengan kanannya terluka. Pada 19 Februari 2008, lima hari sebelum mandatnya berakhir, Castro menyatakan tidak akan mencalonkan diri maupun menerima masa bakti baru sebagai presiden atau komandan angkatan bersenjata Kuba. Jabatannya digantikan oleh adiknya, Raul Castro.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (American Spanish: [fiˈðel aleˈxandɾo ˈkastɾo ˈrus]; born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 to 2008. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state; industry and businesses were nationalized, and state socialist reforms implemented throughout society. Internationally, Castro was the Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and from 2006 to 2008.
The illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista's military junta, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group with Che Guevara and his brother Raúl Castro, referred to as the 26th of July Movement. Returning to Cuba, Castro led the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. As anti-Batista sentiment grew, Castro took a leading role in the Cuban Revolution which ousted the president in 1959, and brought his own assumption of military and political power. Alarmed by his friendly relations with the Soviet Union, the United States government unsuccessfully attempted to remove him, by assassination, economic blockade and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an economic and military alliance with the Soviets and allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
In 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of his administration, with Cuba becoming a one-party state under Communist Party rule; the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere. Adopting a Marxist-Leninist model of development, socialist reforms introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported foreign revolutionary groups in the hope of toppling world capitalism, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, and also sending Cuban troops to aid leftist allies in the Yom Kippur War, Ethio-Somali War, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement, led to Cuba gaining a greater profile on the world stage and earned him great respect in the developing world. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its economic "Special Period", before forging alliances in the Latin American Pink Tide – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and joining the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in 2006. Due to failing health, in 2006 he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who formally assumed the presidency in 2008.
Castro is a controversial and divisive world figure, lauded by his supporters as a champion of socialism, anti-imperialism, humanitarianism, and environmentalism who has established Cuba's independence from American imperialism. Conversely, he is viewed by his critics as a dictator whose administration has overseen multiple human-rights abuses, an exodus of more than one million Cubans, and the impoverishment of the country's economy. Through his actions and his writings he has significantly influenced the politics of various individuals and groups across the world.
