BREAKING: Former Cuba President Fidel Castro Dies At 90

BREAKING: Former Cuba President Fidel Castro Dies At 90

Former Cuba President Fidel Castro died Friday night at around 10:29 p.m. local time. His brother Raul Castro announced on state television the death of the leader who led a rebel army to improbable victory in the country by embracing Soviet-style communism the man who defied the power of ten United States presidents for about fifty years.

The bearded revolutionary handed over the power of Cuba to Raul some eight years ago due to ill health, but he survived many assassination plots in his lifetime.

Born on August 13 in 1926 as Fidel Castro Ruz in eastern Cuba’s sugar country where his father worked as labor for US sugar companies.

He attended Jesuit schools and thereafter studied at the University of Havana. He received law and social science degrees and in 1953 turned his life towards a rebel with reckless attack on the Moncada military barracks int he eastern city of Santiago. He and Raul were taken to prison while most of his comrades were killed.

After freeing under a pardon he fled to Mexico and his rebel caravan arrived in Cuban capital Havana on January 8, 1959 after the downfall of Batista. His government was first formally recognized by United States trusting he would restore democracy and not bring socialism.

The Castro government banned independent newspapers in the country, homosexuals were herded into camps for re-education and members of old government went before summary courts that resulted with shot of at least 582 of them.