Fidel Castro’s grandson sparks fury with video boasting about speeding in his luxury car in Cuba

Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary and communist dictator who served as the country’s Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976, and as its president from 1976 to 2008. 

He also served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011, and ideologically was a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist.

As the longest serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries, Castro polarised opinion throughout the world.

His supporters hold him up as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism, with critics calling him a dictator who oversaw human rights abuses and mass displacement.

Views also differ over Cuba’s economy under his rule, with critics saying he was behind the impoverishment of the country’s economy, while his supporters say he advanced economic justice and secured its independence from U.S. imperialism.

Pictured: Fidel Castro in 1989 during a visit from Mikhail S. Gorbachev’

Castro’s leftist and anti-imperialist ideology found its roots while he was studying law at the University of Havana.

After, he went on to participate in rebellions in Columbia and the Dominican Republic, and planned to overthrow the then-Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953.

He was imprisoned for a year, before travelling to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group called the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.

Upon his return to his home country, he played a key role in the Cuban Revolution, leading the movement’s guerrilla war against Batista’s force, who was eventually overthrown in 1959.

Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba’s Prime Minister, and during his time office, the United States government came to oppose him.

The US failed in its attempts to assassinate him, imposed an economic blockade on Cuba, and attempted to lead a counter-revolution – including the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. 

To country these threats, Castro allied with the Soviet Union, and allowed it to place nuclear weapons on Cuba, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 – a defining incident of the Cold War.

Under his rule, Cuba became the first state in the Western Hemisphere to become a one-party socialist state under Communist rule, leading to state expansion but also state control of the press and suppression of dissent.

Abroad, Cuba backed the establishment of other Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua and Grenada, and sent troops to the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War.

Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Cuba suffered an economic downtrun in which it embraced environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas.

Castro handed leadership responsibilities to his brother and Vice President Raúl Castro in 2006, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. He continues to lead to this day.

Fidel Castro died in 2016. His cause of death was not shared.

A SECRET WEDDING, TWO WIVES AND AT LEAST 10 CHILDREN: CASTRO’S WOMANIZING WAYS

Castro was known to be a womanizer who fathered as many as 10 children, telling an interviewer once that they formed a ‘tribe.’

Throwback to May 2006: A political rally in Havana sees several members of Castro's family attend. Identified by their respective numbers, they are: #1: Alejandro Castro, son, computer expert; #2: Antonio Castro, son, orthopedist, Cuban baseball team doctor; #3: (no name available), grandson, son of Angel Castro; #4: Angel Castro, son; #5: Dalia Soto del Valle, wife and family administrator, teacher; #6: Mirta Castro, granddaughter, daughter of Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart; #7: Alexis Castro, son, mechanic, Mercedes-Benz specialist. The remaining people are friends and bodyguards

Throwback to May 2006: A political rally in Havana sees several members of Castro’s family attend. Identified by their respective numbers, they are: #1: Alejandro Castro, son, computer expert; #2: Antonio Castro, son, orthopedist, Cuban baseball team doctor; #3: (no name available), grandson, son of Angel Castro; #4: Angel Castro, son; #5: Dalia Soto del Valle, wife and family administrator, teacher; #6: Mirta Castro, granddaughter, daughter of Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart; #7: Alexis Castro, son, mechanic, Mercedes-Benz specialist. The remaining people are friends and bodyguards

Castro married his first wife Mirta (Myrta) Diaz-Balart in 1948 after they met at college. They had one child together – a boy named Fidelito (or Little Fidel) in 1949. They later divorced in 1955 reportedly because of him cheating on her. Reports say she went on to marry ‘one of his sworn political enemies’, a man named Emilio Nuñez Blanco, and lived with him in Spain leaving their son in Cuba with Castro. 

Castro pictured with his son Fidelito in Havana circa 1960

Castro pictured with his son Fidelito in Havana circa 1960

He is thought to have married second wife Dalia Soto del Valle in a secret wedding in 1980. She was his companion since 1961 and they had five boys together between 1962 and 1974. Del Valle was a teacher and the couple were not often seen in public together. She appeared on Cuban TV for the first time in 2001. 

Fidel Castro's son Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle (L), and his mother, Dalia Soto del Valle (R), Castro's second wife, and another unidentified woman

Fidel Castro’s son Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle (L), and his mother, Dalia Soto del Valle (R), Castro’s second wife, and another unidentified woman

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro (R) talks with his wife Dalia Soto del Valle, during a special session of the Cuban Parliament, on August 7, 2010 in Havana

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro (R) talks with his wife Dalia Soto del Valle, during a special session of the Cuban Parliament, on August 7, 2010 in Havana

Castro had a daughter, Alina Fernandez, with mistress Natalia Revuelta in 1956. Revuekta was an aristocrat who Castro met while married to his first wife. She donated money and aided Castro and his opposition movement. Alina left the Cuba in 1993 using false papers and now lives in the US.

Alina Fernandez Revuelta (L), daughter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and her daughter Alina-Maria Salgado-Fernandez (R) toast the New Year with champagne, after being reunited in the United States after Alina-Maria left Havana early December 31 1993 for Miami

Alina Fernandez Revuelta (L), daughter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and her daughter Alina-Maria Salgado-Fernandez (R) toast the New Year with champagne, after being reunited in the United States after Alina-Maria left Havana early December 31 1993 for Miami

In excerpts of The Double Life of Fidel Castro by Juan Reinaldo Sanchez in the New York Post it was reported that he cheated on both of his wives. ‘He cheated on the first with the very beautiful Havanan Natalia Revuelta and on the second with ‘comrade’ Celia Sanchez, his private secretary, confidante and guard dog for 30 or so years,’ said The Post.

Still grab from a video taken on January 8, 2014 of former Cuban president Fidel Castro (C) and his wife Dalia Soto (L) during the inauguration of the nonprofit cultural center Kcho Romerillo, Laboratory for Art in Havana

Still grab from a video taken on January 8, 2014 of former Cuban president Fidel Castro (C) and his wife Dalia Soto (L) during the inauguration of the nonprofit cultural center Kcho Romerillo, Laboratory for Art in Havana

Source: Heavy.com