I almost made it through the day without wishing Mr. Castro a happy birthday (because, like, you know he totally reads my web site and is waiting for me to send well-wishes, and all). So, here’s a bit from The History Channel on our favorite communist dictator who
lives only miles from the US.
1926 Fidel Castro born
Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro is born in the Oriente province of eastern Cuba. The son of a Spanish immigrant who had made a fortune building rail systems to transport sugar cane, Fidel attended Roman Catholic boarding schools in Santiago de Cuba. He became involved in revolutionary politics while he was a student and in 1947 took part in an abortive attempt by Dominican exiles and Cubans to overthrow Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. In the next year, he took part in urban riots in Bogotá, Colombia. The most outstanding feature of his politics during the period was his anti-American beliefs; he was not yet an overt Marxist.
The humorous part of Castro’s history? In 1953, while trying to overthrow the current Cuban government with a band of rebels, roughly half of his troops were captured or killed. Arrested for this, Castro argued he shouldn’t be jailed:
Castro was himself arrested and put on trial for conspiring to overthrow the Cuban government. During his trial, he argued that he and his rebels were fighting to restore democracy to Cuba, but he was nonetheless found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
So, Fidel, how’s that whole democratizing your nation going?
That said, happy birthday Fidel Castro. We hope you get well from your recent surgery and all really soon. And could you like, please stop being a communist dictator and all?
[tags]Happy Birthday, Fidel Castro, Cuban government[/tags]