Guantánamo

Guantánamo is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province.
Guantanamo is served by the Caimanera port. Producing sugarcane and cotton wool are traditional parts of the economy.

The municipality is mountainous in the north, where it overlays the Sierra Maestra (mountains), and borders the Windward Passage of the Caribbean Sea in the south. It is crossed by the Guantánamo, Yateras, Guaso, San Andrés and Sabanalamar rivers. The Guantánamo Bay is a natural harbour south of the city.
The municipality is divided into the barrios of Arroyo Hondo, Baitiquirí, Bano, Bayate, Caimanera, Camarones, Caridad, Corralillo, Cuatro Caminos, Filipinas, Glorieta, Gobierno, Guaso, Hospital, Indios, Isleta, Jaibo Abajo, Las Lajas, Macurijes, Mercado, Ocujal, Parroquia, Palma de San Juan, Rastro, Tiguabos and Vínculo.

About 15 km away from the city lies the Guantánamo Bay, a superior natural harbour which has been controlled by the United States as the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base since 1902, following a controversial unlimited lease of the harbour to the US.
The military base contains detention centers, currently used for "unlawful combatants" captured in the War on Terrorism. The detention centers consist of the temporary Camp X-Ray, which is now closed, and the permanent Camp Delta.

In 2004, the municipality of Guantánamo had a population of 244,603. With a total area of 741 km² (286.1 sq mi), it has a population density of 330.1/km² (855/sq mi).

Notable natives of Guantánamo include athletes Joel Casamayor, Yumileidi Cumbá, Jaime Jefferson, Yargelis Savigne, Dayron Robles, Luis Delís, and Cuban-American gymnast Annia Hatch; and cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Cuban cosmonaut and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel into earth orbit. He was also the first Hispanophone and first person of African ancestry in space.

Fidel Castro - Political beginnings

In late 1945, Castro entered law school at the University of Havana. He became immediately embroiled in the political culture at the University, which was a reflection of the volatile politics in Cuba during that era.

Since the fall of president Gerardo Machado in the 1930s, student politics had degenerated into a form of gangsterismo dominated by fractious action groups, and Castro, believing that the gangs posed a physical threat to his university aspirations, experienced what he later described as "a great moment of decision." He returned to the university from a brief hiatus to involve himself fully in the various violent battles and disputes which surrounded university elections, and was to be implicated in a number of shootings linked to Rolando Masferrer's MSR action group. "To not return", said Castro later, "would be to give in to bullies, to abandon my beliefs". Rivalries were so intense that Castro apparently collaborated in an attempt on Masferrer's life during this period, while Masferrer, whose paramilitary group Les Tigres later became an instrument of state violence under Batista, perennially hunted the younger student seeking violent retribution.

In 1947, growing increasingly passionate about social justice, Castro joined the Partido Ortodoxo which had been newly formed by Eduardo Chibás. A charismatic figure, Chibás was running for president against the incumbent Ramón Grau San Martín who had allowed rampant corruption to flourish during his term.^{[citation needed]} The Partido Ortodoxo publicly exposed corruption and demanded government and social reform. It aimed to instill a strong sense of national identity among Cubans, establish Cuban economic independence and freedom from the United States, and dismantle the power of the elite over Cuban politics. Though Chibás lost the election, Castro, considering Chibás his mentor, remained committed to his cause, working fervently on his behalf. In 1951, while running for president again, Chibás shot himself in the stomach during a radio broadcast. Castro was present and accompanied him to the hospital where he died.^[13]

Fidel Castro's role in the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in Bogota, Colombia on April 9, 1948--and the massive riots that followed--has been the object of speculation by James M. Roberts of The Heritage Foundation. However, the following account seems to be generally agreed upon: In early April, Castro traveled to Bogotá for a political conference of Latin American students that coincided with the ninth meeting of the Pan-American Union Conference. The students had planned to use this opportunity to distribute pamphlets protesting United States dominance of the Western Hemisphere and to foment discontent. A few days after the conference began, the populist Colombian Liberal Party leader and presidential candidate Gaitán was shot by an unknown young man with a .32 caliber handgun, triggering massive riots in the streets in which many (mostly poor workers) were injured or killed.^{[citation needed]} Rioting and looting spread to other cities in Colombia, beginning an era of turbulence that became known as "La Violencia". The students were caught up in the violence and chaos rocking the city, picking up rifles and roaming the streets distributing anti-United States material and stirring a revolt. When Castro was pursued by the Colombian authorities for his role in the riots, he took refuge in the Cuban Embassy and was flown back to Havana.

Castro returned to Cuba and married Mirta Díaz Balart, a student from a wealthy Cuban family through which he was exposed to the lifestyle of the Cuban elite. In 1950 he graduated from law school with a Doctor of Laws degree and began practicing law in a small partnership in Havana. By now he had become well known for his passionately nationalistic views and his intense opposition to the influence of the United States on Cuban internal affairs. Increasingly interested in a career in politics, Castro had become a candidate for a seat in the Cuban parliament when General Fulgencio Batista led a coup d'état in 1952, successfully overthrowing the government of President Carlos Prío Socarrás and canceling the election.

Batista established himself as de facto leader with the support of establishment elements of Cuban society and powerful Cuban agencies. His government was formally recognized by the United States, buttressing his power. Castro, nearing thirty, was now a politician without a legitimate platform and thus he broke away from the Partido Ortodoxo to marshal legal arguments based on the Constitution of 1940 to formally charge Batista with violating the constitution. His petition, entitled Zarpazo, was denied by the Court of Constitutional Guarantees and he was not allowed a hearing. This experience formed the foundation for Castro's opposition to the Batista government and convinced him that revolution was the only way to depose Batista.

Interview with Che Guevara, 1964

Che Guevara in Guatemala

On July 7, 1953, Guevara set out again, this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. In December 1953 he arrived in Guatemala where President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed a democratically elected government that, through land reform and other initiatives, was attempting to end the latifundia system. Guevara decided to settle down in Guatemala so as to "perfect [him]self and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary".

In Guatemala City, Guevara sought out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was well-connected politically as a member of the left-leaning American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA). She introduced Guevara to a number of high-level officials in the Arbenz government. Guevara also established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro through the July 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequent use of the Argentine interjection "che", which is used in much the same way as "hey" or "pal".

Guevara's attempts to obtain a medical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious. On May 15, 1954 a shipment of Škoda infantry and light artillery weapons was sent from Communist Czechoslovakia for the Arbenz Government and arrived in Puerto Barrios, prompting a CIA-sponsored coup attempt. Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight, but soon after, Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. After Hilda Gadea was arrested, Guevara sought protection inside the Argentine consulate, where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to Mexico.

The overthrow of the Arbenz regime cemented Guevara's view of the United States as an imperialist power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing countries. This strengthened his conviction that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions.

Raúl Castro

Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (born June 3, 1931) is the President of the Cuban Council of State and the head of state of Cuba. The younger brother of Fidel Castro, he is also Second Secretary of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), and Commander in Chief (Maximum General) of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force).

On July 31, 2006, Raúl Castro assumed the duties of President of the Council of State in a temporary transfer of power due to Fidel Castro's illness. According to the Cuban Constitution Article 94, the First Vice President of the Council of State assumes presidential duties upon the illness or death of the president.

Raúl Castro was elected President at the 24 February 2008, National Assembly session, as Fidel Castro had announced his intention not to stand for President again on 19 February 2008.

Son of Spanish immigrant Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz, a Cuban woman of Galician ancestry, Raúl is the youngest of the three Castro brothers. He also has four sisters, Angela, Juanita, Enma, and Agustina, and two half siblings, Lidia and Pedro Emilio, who were raised by Ángel Castro's first wife. Persistent rumors supported by former CIA analyst Brian Latell are taken to suggest that Batista army loyalist Felipe Miraval, nicknamed "el Chino" is Raúl's, but not Fidel's, father. As youngsters, the Castro brothers were expelled from the first school they attended. Like Fidel, Raúl later attended the Jesuit School of Colegio Dolores in Santiago and Colegio Belén in Havana. Raúl, as an undergraduate, studied social sciences. Whereas Fidel excelled as a student, Raúl's performance was mostly mediocre. Raúl was a committed socialist and joined the Socialist Youth, an affiliate of the Soviet-oriented Cuban Communist Party, Partido Socialista Popular (PSP). The brothers participated actively in sometimes violent student political actions. In 1953, Raúl was a member of the 26th of July Movement that attacked the Moncada Barracks, and he spent 22 months in prison as a result of this action. During his exile in Mexico, he participated in the preparations of the expedition of the ship Granma, embarking for Cuba on December 2, 1956.

It was during the period in Mexico that Raúl reportedly befriended Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Mexico City and brought him into Fidel's circle of revolutionaries. Raúl also established contact with Soviet KGB agent Nikolai Leonov, whom he had met two years earlier during a trip to the Soviet-bloc nations. That relationship would persist until the Castro brothers successfully assumed power in Cuba.

Raúl was one of the few survivors of the disastrous Granma landing. He was part of the tiny group of survivors who managed to reach a safe haven in the Sierra Maestra mountains (see the Cuban Revolution). As Fidel's brother and trusted right-hand man he was given progressively bigger commands. On February 27, 1958, Raúl was made comandante and assigned the mission to cross the old province of Oriente leading a column of guerrillas to open, to the northeast of that territory, the "Frank País Eastern Front."

As a result of Raúl's "Eastern Front" operations he was not involved in the pivotal Operation Verano (which came close to destroying the main body of fighters but ended up a spectacular victory for Fidel). However, Raúl's forces remained active and grew over time. By October 1958, after being reinforced by Fidel, the two brothers had about 2,000 fighters and they were operating freely throughout Oriente province. In December, while Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos were operating around Santa Clara, Fidel and Raúl's army laid siege to Maffo (capturing it on December 30th). Their victorious army then headed to Santiago de Cuba, the capital of Oriente province.

Thanks to the loss of Santa Clara, Batista fled Cuba on night of December 31-January 1. The two Castro brothers with their army arrived on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba and said their forces would storm the city at 6 PM January 1 if it did not first surrender. The commander (Colonel Rego Rubido) surrendered Santiago de Cuba without a fight. The war was over and Fidel was able to take power in Havana when he arrived on January 6, 1959.

Raúl's abilities as a military leader during the revolution are hard to see clearly. Unlike Che Guevara or Cienfuegos, Raúl had no significant victories he could claim credit for on his own. The last operations (which were clearly successful) were conducted with his older brother Fidel present (and in command).

After Batista's fall, Raúl was responsible for overseeing the summary execution of "scores" of soldiers loyal to deposed president Fulgencio Batista.

Raúl Castro Ruz was a member of the National Leadership of the Integrated Revolutionary PO Organizations (established July 1961; dissolved March 1962) and of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba (established March 1962; dissolved October 1965). He has been a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Second Secretary of its Politburo since the Party's formation in October 1965; also, the First Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, of the National Assembly of the Popular Power and of the Council of Ministers since these were created in 1976. He was appointed Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces when the Ministry was founded in October 1959 and served in that capacity until February 2008; he is also the nation's highest ranking general. Castro is credited with persuading his older brother to implement agricultural market reforms in the early 1990s which increased the food supply, after the Soviet Union fell and its generous subsidies to Cuba stopped.

On July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro's personal secretary Carlos Valenciaga announced on state-run television that Fidel Castro would provisionally hand over the duties of President of the Council of State of Cuba, First Secretary of the Communist Party and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to Raúl Castro while Fidel underwent and recovered from intestinal surgery to repair gastrointestinal bleeding.

Many commentators consider Raúl Castro to be a political hardliner who will maintain the Communist Party of Cuba's political power at all costs. However, there are others who believe that he is more pragmatic than his older brother and more willing to institute free market-oriented economic policies. It is speculated that he favours a variant of the current Chinese political and economic model for Cuba in the hopes of preserving some elements of the socialist system. However, none of these speculations has ever been confirmed by Raúl himself.

Several commentators, including some writers on the The Wall Street Journal, call Castro "uncharismatic and widely feared," with a "cold efficien[t]" style. He is accused of the persecution of dissidents and homosexuals. Additionally, some have speculated about Raúl's ill health, specifically alcoholism, raising doubts about his future leadership.

Raúl, considered much less charismatic than his brother Fidel Castro, has remained largely out of public view during the transfer of duty period. His few public appearances included hosting a gathering of leaders of the Non-Aligned nations in September 2006, and leading the national commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Granma boat landing, which also became Fidel's belated 80th birthday celebrations.

In a speech to university students, Raúl stated that a communist system in Cuba would remain, and that "Fidel is irreplaceable, unless we all replace him together."

On May 1, 2007, Raúl presided over the May Day celebrations in Havana. According to Granma the crowd reached over one million participants, with delegations from over 225 organizations and 52 countries.

While Fidel Castro historically mesmerized his countrymen with dramatic, extemporaneous speeches stretching over hours, brother Raúl is known for his businesslike, unanimated delivery, rarely bothering to look up from prepared texts. So Raúl offers, after the resignation of his brother Fidel, announced February 19, 2008, a quieter Castro voice.

On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly elected Raúl president of Cuba. Raúl delivered his inaugural address shortly afterward.

Taking his brother's place as President of Cuba in February 2008, Raúl Castro's government has been carrying out many changes. Unlike his brother, Raúl Castro has, among others things, allowed ordinary citizens to buy DVD-players, PC's, scooters and other energy-consuming products. He has also signed two United Nations human rights agreements, given unused state land for farming, freed many prisoners and loosened up travel restrictions for Cubans.

A few weeks after the 1959 victory, Castro married Vilma Espín Guillois, a former MIT chemical engineering student and veteran of the revolution who in 1960 became president of the Cuban Federation of Women. They have three daughters (Déborah, Mariela and Nilsa) and one son (Alejandro). Their daughter Mariela currently heads the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. Vilma Espín died on June 18, 2007, a daughter and some relatives of Raúl are believed to reside in Italy.

In an interview in 2006, following his assumption of presidential duties, Raúl Castro commented on his public profile stating: "I am not used to making frequent appearances in public, except at times when it is required … I have always been discreet, that is my way, and in passing I will clarify that I am thinking of continuing in that way."

Religion in Cuba

Religion in Cuba reflects the island’s diverse cultural elements. Cuba is traditionally a Catholic country. In some instances Catholicism is much modified and influenced through syncretism. A common syncretic belief is Santería, which originated in Cuba and spread to neighboring islands; it shows similarities to Brazilian Umbanda and has been receiving a degree of official support.

Santería developed out of the traditions of the Yoruba, one of the African peoples who were imported to Cuba during the 16th through 19th centuries to work on the sugar plantations. Santería blends elements of Christianity and West African beliefs and as such made it possible for the slaves to retain their traditional beliefs while appearing to practice Catholicism. Cuba’s patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady Of Charity) is a syncretism with the Santería goddess Ochún. The important religious festival "La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre" is celebrated by Cubans annually on 8 September. Other religions practised are Palo Monte, and Abakuá, which have large parts of their liturgy in African languages.

After the revolution of 1959, Cuba became an officially atheistic state and restricted religious practice. From 1959 to 1961 eighty percent of the professional Catholic priests and Protestant ministers left Cuba for the United States. Relationships between the new government and congregations were tense, the new Cuban government was very limiting and suspicious of church operations, blaming them for collaboration with the CIA during the Bay of Pigs invasion and stockpiling arms provided for a "counter-revolution".

Since 1992, restrictions have been eased and direct challenges by state institutions to the right to been eased somewhat, though the church still faces restrictions of written and electronic communication, and can only accept donations from state-approved funding sources. The Roman Catholic Church is made up of the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference (COCC), led by Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Cardinal Archbishop of Havana. It has eleven dioceses, 56 orders of nuns and 24 orders of priests.

On January 1998, Pope John Paul II paid a historic visit to the island, invited by the Cuban government and Catholic Church.

Public health in Cuba

The Cuban government operates a much-lauded national health system and assumes full fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of its citizens. Historically, Cuba has long ranked high in numbers of medical personnel and has made significant contributions to world health since the 19th century. However, after the Batista government fell in 1959 nearly half of Cuba's 6,000 to 6,500 physicians were among those who left the country, requiring the rebuilding of the health care system. A network of community based primary health care clinics was built across the country with many new clinics in previously under-served rural areas. The number of women doctors has increased dramatically and, as of 2001, women made up more than half the student body at Havana's medical school.

Cuba stands out among third world nations in addressing children's health care. Whereas in most third world nations, death rates in the first five years greatly exceed those of developed nations, primarily due to malnutrition, diarrhea, and parasitic diseases, Cuba's epidemiological profile is closer to that of the United States or United Kingom. Incidence of AIDS is the lowest in the western hemisphere, with each pregnant woman being tested for HIV/AIDS and receiving a full course of AZT produced in Cuba. In 1992 Cuba ranked at the median level in the human development index created by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The key measurements were life expectancy, educational attainment, and per capita income. Of 174 nations indexed, Cuba ranked 30th in life expectancy with an average 75.3 years, above Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. It also ranked high in literacy but had only about half the per capita income of Chile, the Latin American leader in income. According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, life expectancy and infant mortality rates in Cuba have been comparable to Western industrialized countries since such information was first gathered in 1957. According to the UNICEF Child Survival: State of the World's Children 2008 Report, Cuba ranks 175 among the world's nations in infant mortality, with 7 deaths per 1000 live births, with Canada ranking better at 180, and the United States ranking worse, at 174 with 8 deaths per 1000 live births.

In depth examination of WHO statistics for Cuba reveals that these statistics are prepared by each government and published unchanged by WHO; thus they have been called into question. Nevertheless, the CIA World Factbook cites life expectancy and infant mortality rates that are similar to those for the USA. It is not clear what sources the CIA used for this, since the data presented seems to be equivalent to that published by the Cuban government; this has led to suggestions that material prepared by Ana Belen Montes (a convicted Castro government agent, arrested in 2001) is still being used by the CIA. However, given the extensive and specific data, which have been promptly published in Cuba since 1970, the high rate of autopsies and the low number of deaths attributed to undefined causes (an important indicator for inaccurate vital statistics), a high level of confidence can be placed in Cuban health statistics. Cuban officials have acknowledged that some health care indicators worsened during the 1990s after the loss of Soviet aid and while the United States embargo of health supplies remained in effect.

A separate, second division of hospitals cares specifically for foreigners and diplomats. While tourists can get health care from public clinics on an emergency basis, they are expected to use a fee-for-service health care network called "Servimed" for non-emergency health care needs. There are about 40 Servimed health care centers across the island. Many foreigners travel to Cuba for reliable and affordable health care.

Cuba provides medical care as foreign aid, providing free care to victims of disasters, including 16,000 victims of Chernobyl, and sends medical teams to scores of poor nations, numbering some 26,000 medical personnel as of 2005. Teams of Cuban doctors have been sent to Haiti and the poorest nations of Africa to fight malaria, TB, and HIV. In 1996, at the request of the South African government, Cuba sent 600 English-speaking doctors to make up for the shortfall caused by the emigration of South African doctors. By 2002 80 percent of the doctors in rural South Africa were Cuban. Cuba has had up to ten percent of its doctors serving abroad, fielding more doctors than the World Health Organization. Cuban doctors have won a reputation for being willing to endure primitive living conditions, for being able to improvise when equipment and supplies are lacking, and for maintaining warm relationships with the local population.

Cuba spends about twice as much of its GDP on health care, about 6.6%, as the Latin American average, maintaining a ratio, as of 2001, of one doctor per 150 families. Nevertheless, Cuban doctors are not well-paid by international standards. The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and NPR have all reported on Cuban doctors defecting to other countries. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, at least 63, and perhaps hundreds of the approximately 20,000 Cuban doctors sent to work in the barrios in Venezuela, have deserted, in part, because their salary in Cuba is only $15 per month. The United States has announced a policy of preference for Cuban medical workers who seek asylum.

Spoken languages

As with much of America, spanish is spoken in Cuba. After the 1959 Revolution, the term "compañero/compañera", meaning comrade, came to gradually replace the traditional "señor/señora" as the universal polite title of address for strangers. A significant number of Afro-Cubans as well as mulatto Cubans speak Haitian Creole. Haitian Creole is the second most spoken language as well as a recognized one in Cuba with approximately 300,000 speakers. Haiti was a French colony, and the final years of the 1791-1804 Haitian Revolution brought a wave of French settlers fleeing with their Haitian slaves to Cuba.

Many words from Cuban Amerindian languages have entered common usage in both Spanish and English, such as the Taíno words canoa, tabaco and huracán.

When speaking to the elderly, or to strangers, Cubans speak more formally as a sign of respect. They shake hands upon greeting someone and farewelling them. Men often exchange friendly hugs (abrazos) and it is also common for both men and women to greet friends and family with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Informalities like addressing a stranger with 'mi corazón' (my heart), 'mi vida' (my life), or 'cariño' (dear) are common.

Che Guevara - early years

Ernesto Guevara was born on 14 June 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children in a family of Basque and Irish descent. Growing up in a family with leftist leanings, Guevara was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy. Though suffering from the crippling bouts of asthma that were to afflict him throughout his life, he excelled as an athlete. He was an avid rugby union player and earned himself the nickname "Fuser"—a contraction of "El Furibundo" (raging) and his mother's surname "de la Serna"—for his aggressive style of play. Ernesto was also nicknamed "Chancho" (pig) by his schoolmates, because he rarely bathed, and proudly wore a "weekly shirt".

Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by the age of 12. During his adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, especially that of Neruda, Keats, Machado, Lorca, Mistral, Vallejo, and Whitman. He could also recite Kipling's "If" and Hernández's "Martín Fierro" from memory. The Guevara home contained more than 3,000 books, which allowed Guevara to be an enthusiastic and eclectic reader, with interests including Marx, Faulkner, Gide, and Verne. He also enjoyed reading Nehru, Kafka, Camus, Lenin, and Sartre; as well as France, Engels, Wells, and Frost.

As he got older he developed an interest in the Latin American writers Quiroga, Alegria, Icaza, Dario, and Asturias. Many of these author's ideas he would catalog in his own handwritten notebooks of concepts, definitions, and philosophies of influential intellectuals. These included composing analytical sketches of Buddha and Aristotle, along with examining Bertrand Russell on love and patriotism, Jack London on society, and Nietzsche on the idea of death. Sigmund Freud's ideas also fascinated him as he quoted him on a variety of topics from dreams and libido, to narcissism and the oedipus complex.

In 1948, Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. While still a student in 1951, Guevara took a year off from his medical studies to embark on a trip traversing South America by motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado, with the final goal of spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru, on the banks of the Amazon River. Guevara used notes taken during this trip to write an account entitled The Motorcycle Diaries, which later became a New York Times best-seller, and was adapted into a 2004 award-winning film of the same name.

Witnessing the widespread poverty, oppression and disenfranchisement throughout Latin America, and influenced by his readings of Marxist literature, Guevara began to view armed revolution as the solution to social inequality. By trip's end, he also viewed Latin America not as separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide liberation strategy. His conception of a borderless, united Hispanic America sharing a common 'mestizo' Hispanic America was a theme that prominently recurred during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he completed his studies and received his medical diploma in June of 1953.

Eliades Ochoa

Eliades Ochoa(born June 22, 1946) is a Cuban guitarist and singer in Loma de la Avispa, Songo La Maya in the east of the country near Santiago.

He began playing the guitar when he was six and in 1978 he joined Cuarteto Patria, a band that has played since 1940. His roots are in guajira (Cuban country music) and he still wears his trademark cowboy hat. He plays the tres, and also a variant called cuatro (with two additional strings). His involvement with the Buena Vista Social Club and the Wim Wenders film of the same name, has led him to worldwide fame.

In 1998 he recorded the album CubAfrica with Manu Dibango, in 1999 the album Sublime Ilusión, and in 2004 he recorded the song Hemingway with the Dutch band Bløf, which appeared on their 2006 album Umoja.

Pre-Columbian Cuba

Guanajatabeyes

The earliest inhabitants of Cuba were the Guanajatabey people, who migrated to the island from the forests of the South American mainland as long ago as 5300 BC. The Guanajatabeyes, who numbered about 100,000, were hunters, gatherers, and farmers. They were to cultivate cohiba (tobacco), a crop upon which the island's economy would one day depend. Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar later observed that the Guanajatabeyes were "without houses or towns and eating only the meat they are able to find in the forests as well as turtles and fish." Though the Guanajatabeyes are now considered to be a distinct population, early anthropologists and historians mistakenly believed that they were the Ciboney people who occupied areas throughout the Antilles islands of the Caribbean. More recently, researchers have speculated that the Guanajatabeyes may have migrated from the south of the United States, evidenced by similarities of artifacts found in both regions. Some studies ascribe a role to these original inhabitants in the extinction of the islands' megafauna, including condors, giant owls, and eventually ground sloths.

Further evidence suggests that the Guanajatabeyes were driven to the west of the island by the arrival of two subsequent waves of migrants, the Taíno and Ciboney. These groups are sometimes referred to as neo-Taíno nations. The new arrivals had migrated north along the Caribbean island chain from the Orinoco delta in Venezuela. These two groups were prehistoric cultures in a time period during which humans created tools from stone, yet they were familiar with gold (caona) and copper alloys (guanín).

Taíno and Ciboney cultures

The Taíno and Ciboney were part of a cultural group commonly called the Arawak, which extended far into South America. Initially the new arrivals inhabited the eastern area of Baracoa before expanding across the island. Traveling Dominican clergyman and writer Bartolome de las Casas estimated that the Cuban population of the neo-Taíno people had reached 200,000 by the time of the late fifteenth century. The Taíno cultivated the yucca root, harvested it and baked it to produce cassava bread. They also grew cotton and tobacco, and ate maize and sweet potatoes. According to Las Casas, they had "everything they needed for living; they had many crops, well arranged".

Omara Portuondo

Omara Portuondo (born 1930) is a Cuban singer whose career has spanned over half a century.

Portuondo was born in October 1930 in Havana, one of three sisters; her mother came from a wealthy Spanish family, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseball player. Omara started her career in 1945 as a dancer at Havana's Tropicana Club (following her older sister, Haydee). The two sisters used to sing for family and friends, however, and after a brief time in a band called Loquibambia Swing, in 1952 they got together with two friends (Elena Burke and Moraima Secada) and formed the singing group Cuarteto D'Aida, backed by pianist Aida Diestro. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording an album for RCA Victor.

In 1959 Portuondo recorded a solo album, Magia Negra, involving both jazz and Cuban music. This didn't, however, mark the beginning of a solo career, and although Haydee left the group in 1961 in order to live in the U.S., Omara continued singing with Cuarteto las d'Aida until 1967.

In 1967 Portuondo embarked on a solo career, and in the same year represented Cuba at the Sopot Festival in Poland, singing Juanito Marquez' "Como un Milagro". Alongside her solo work, in the 1970s she sang with charanga band Orquesta Aragon, and toured with them both in the Communist and non-Communist worlds.

In 1974 she recorded, with guitarist Martin Rojas, what would become one of her most critically acclaimed albums in which she sings praises to Salvador Allende and the people of Chile a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Among many other hits from the album, she also praises the work of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the beautiful "Hasta Siempre Comandante".

During the 1970s and 1980s Portuondo enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Alvarez), film roles, and her own television series. Her international profile was due to soar, however, in 1996.

Portuondo sang (duetting with Ibrahim Ferrer) on the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1996. This led, not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders' film The Buena Vista Social Club, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). In July 2005 she presented a symphonic concert of her most important repertoire at the Berlin Festival Classic Open Air am Gendarmenmarkt for an audience of 7,000. The entire program was specially orchestrated by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, a conductor/pianist with whom she had worked during her early years at Havana's Tropicana Club. Scott Lawton conducted the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg. In 2007 she is performing the title role to sold out audiences in Lizt Alfonso's dance musical "Vida", the story of modern Cuba through the eyes and with the memories of an old woman. In this same year, her performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was released on DVD. She recorded in 2008 a duets album with brazilian singer Maria Bethania, namaed Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo.

Discography

• 1950s: Amigas (by the Cuarteto las d'Aida)
• 1996: Palabras
• 1996: Buena Vista Social Club
• 1997: Omara Portuondo & Martin Rojas
• 1997: A Toda Cuba le Gusta (by the Afro-Cuban All Stars)
• 1999: Desafios (with Chucho Valdés)
• 1999: Oro Musical
• 1999: Magia Negra
• 1999: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer
• 2000: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo
• 2000: Roots of Buena Vista
• 2000: La Colección Cubana
• 2001: Pensamiento
• 2001: La Sitiera
• 2001: You
• 2002: 18 Joyas Ineditas
• 2002: La Gran Omara Portuondo
• 2002: La Novia del Filin
• 2002: Dos Gardenias
• 2004: Flor De Amor
• 2005: Lágrimas Negras (Canciones y Boleros)
• 2007: Singles
• 2008: Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo

Fidel Castro - childhood and education

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on a sugar plantation in Birán, near Mayarí, in the modern-day province of Holguín – then a part of the now-defunct Oriente province. He was the third child born to Ángel Castro y Argiz, a Galician immigrant from the impoverished northwest of Spain who became relatively prosperous through work in the sugar industry and successful investing. His mother, Lina Ruz González, who was a household servant, was also of Galician background. Angel Castro was married to another woman, Maria Luisa Argota, until Fidel was 17, and thus Fidel as a child had to deal both with his illegitimacy and the challenge of being raised in various foster homes away from his father's house.

Castro has two brothers, Ramón and Raúl, and four sisters, Angelita, Juanita, Enma, and Agustina, all of whom were born out of wedlock. He also has two half siblings, Lidia and Pedro Emilio who were raised by Ángel Castro's first wife.

Fidel was not baptized until he was 8, also very uncommon, bringing embarrassment and ridicule from other children. Ángel Castro finally dissolved his first marriage when Fidel was 15 and married Fidel’s mother. Castro was formally recognized by his father when he was 17, when his surname was legally changed to Castro from Ruz, his mother’s name. Although accounts of his education differ, most sources agree that he was an intellectually gifted student, more interested in sports than in academics, and spent many years in private Catholic boarding schools, finishing high school at El Colegio de Belén, a Jesuit school in Havana in 1945. While at Belén, the 21-year-old Castro pitched on the school's baseball team. There are persistent rumors that Castro was scouted for various U.S. baseball teams, but there is no evidence that this ever actually happened.

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. After his death, his stylized image became an ubiquitous countercultural symbol worldwide.

As a young medical student, Guevara travelled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of monopoly capitalism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara’s radical ideology.

Later, in Mexico, he met Fidel Castro and joined his 26th of July Movement. In December 1956, he was among the revolutionaries who invaded Cuba under Castro's leadership with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to Comandante, and played a pivotal role in the successful guerrilla campaign that deposed Batista. Following the Cuban revolution, Guevara oversaw the revolutionary tribunals and executions of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. Later he served as minister of industry and president of the national bank, before traversing the globe as a diplomat to meet an array of world leaders on behalf of Cuban socialism. He was also a prolific writer and diarist, with one of his most influential works being a manual on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions first in an unsuccessful attempt in Congo-Kinshasa and then in Bolivia, where he was captured with the help of the CIA and executed.

Both notorious for his harsh discipline and revered for his unwavering dedication to his revolutionary doctrines, Guevara remains an admired, controversial, and significant historical figure. As a result of his death and romantic visage, along with his invocation to armed class struggle and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by "moral" rather than "material" incentives; Guevara evolved into a quintessential icon of leftist inspired movements, as well as a global merchandising sensation. He has been mostly venerated and occasionally reviled in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, books, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico, was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."

Ibrahim Ferrer

Ibrahim Ferrer (February 20, 1927 – August 6, 2005) was a popular Afro-Cuban singer and musician in Cuba. He performed with many musical groups including the Afro-Cuban All Stars. Later in life, Ferrer became a member of the internationally successful Buena Vista Social Club. His increasing popularity lead to collaborations with contemporary acts such as Gorillaz.

Ferrer was born at a dance in San Luis, near the city of Santiago de Cuba. His mother died when he was 12, leaving him orphaned and forcing him to sing on the streets (busk) to earn money. The next year, Ferrer joined his first ever musical group, a duet alongside his cousin called Jovenes del Son (Spanish: Youths of Rhythm). They performed at private functions and the two youths managed to scrape together enough money to live.

Over the next few years, Ferrer would perform with many musical groups, including Conjunto Sorpresa and Orquesta Chepin-Choven.

The leader of the latter composed one of Ferrer's biggest hits, "El Platanal de Bartolo".

• In 1953 Ferrer started to play with Pacho Alonso's group in Santiago, Cuba. In 1959 the group moved permanently to Havana, renaming themselves Los Bocucos, after a type of drum widely used in Santiago.

• With Alonso, Ferrer primarily performed son, guaracha and other up-tempo songs. However, he yearned to sing boleros. It was not until almost 40 years later, with the release of Ry Cooder's Grammy Award winning, Oscar nominated Buena Vista Social Club recording in 1999, that Ibrahim Ferrer's talent as a bolero singer would become widely known.

• In 1996, Ferrer took part in the World Circuit sessions, when it was announced that an old*style bolero singer would be required. In that year, he recorded the album A Toda Cuba le Gusta with the Afro-Cuban All Stars, an album nominated for a Grammy Award.

• In 1998 he recorded an album for the Cuban label EGREM, Tierra Caliente: Ibrahim Ferrer con Los Bocucos. It features Ferrer's unique voice and phrasing, band leader Roberto Correra's rich, intricate arrangements and excellent lead trumpet, and tight, rhythmic playing by the Bocucos. The album's is in the style of son-jazz big band fusion.

• In 1999 Ry Cooder recorded Ferrer's first solo album, shown above.

• In 2000 Ferrer famously received a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist – at the age of 72.

• In 2001 he appeared on the track Latin Simone on the self-titled debut album of virtual-band Gorillaz.

• In 2004 Ferrer won a Grammy, but was denied permission by the U.S. government to enter the U.S. to receive his award under a U.S. law designed for "terrorists, drug dealers and dangerous criminals."

• Ferrer still toured internationally in Europe in 2005, and released his second solo recording, Buenos Hermanos, in 2003. He was an adherent of the Santería faith, a blending of traditional African religions and Catholicism.

• Ferrer's contributed in 2005 to the APE Vision (Artists' Project Earth) album Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba, a collaboration with artists Coldplay, U2, Sting, Dido, Faithless, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5 and others.

• Ferrer's last recording was 'Mi Sueño', an album devoted to the bolero. It was released in 2006

He died at age 78 of multiple organ failure on August 6, 2005 at CIMEQ hospital in Havana (Cuba) after returning from a European tour. He was buried in the Colón Cemetery, Havana.

Discography

• 1960 - Mis tiempos con Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental
• 1973 - Recording with Los Bocucos
• 1999 – Buena Vista Social Club Presents: Ibrahim Ferrer
• 2000 - Tierra Caliente: Roots of Buena Vista
• 2002 - Mis Tiempos Con Chepín
• 2002 - La Collección Cubana
• 2002 - Tiempos Con Chepín y Su Orquesta
• 2003 - Buenos Hermanos
• 2004 - Que Bueno Está
• 2005 - Ay, Candela
• 2006 - Mi Sueño

Colonial Cuba

Cuba was in Spanish possession for almost 400 years (circa 1511-1898). Its economy was based on plantation agriculture, mining and the export of sugar, coffee and tobacco to Europe and later to North America. Havana was seized by the British in 1762, but restored to Spain the following year. The Spanish population was boosted by settlers leaving Haiti when that territory was ceded to France. As in other parts of the Spanish Empire, the small land-owning elite of Spanish-descended settlers held social and economic power, supported by a population of Spaniards born on the island and called Criollos by the Iberian born Spaniards, other Europeans and African-descended slaves.

In the 1820s, when the other parts of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal, although there was some agitation for independence. Due to Cuba's loyalty to the Spanish government, the Spanish Crown gave the following motto to the island government "La Siempre Fidelisima Isla" (The Always Most Faithful Island). This was partly because the prosperity of Cuban settlers depended on trade with Europe, partly through fears of a slave rebellion (as had happened in Haiti) if the Spanish withdrew, and partly because the Cubans feared the rising power of the United States more than they disliked Spanish rule.

An additional factor was the continuous migration of Spaniards to Cuba from all social strata, a trend that had ceased in other Spanish possessions decades earlier and which contributed to the slow development of a Cuban national identity. Pirates were also still a problem and defense against them depended heavily on the presence of Spanish troops.

Cuba's proximity to the U.S. has been a powerful influence on its history. Throughout the 19th century, Southern politicians in the U.S. plotted the island's annexation as a means of strengthening the pro-slavery forces in the U.S., and there was usually a party in Cuba which supported such a policy. In 1848 a pro-annexation rebellion was defeated and there were several attempts by annexation forces to invade the island from Florida. There were also regular proposals in the U.S. to buy Cuba from Spain. During the summer of 1848 President James K. Polk quietly authorized his ambassador to Spain, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, to negotiate the purchase of Cuba and offer Spain up to $100 million. While an astonishing sum at the time for one territory, trade in sugar and molasses from Cuba exceeded $18,000,000 in 1838 alone. Spain, however, refused to consider ceding one of its last possessions in the Americas.

After the American Civil War apparently ended the threat of pro-slavery annexation, agitation for Cuban independence from Spain revived, leading to a rebellion in 1868 led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a wealthy lawyer landowner from Oriente province who freed his slaves, proclaimed a war and was named president of the Cuban Republic-in-arms. This resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War between pro-independence forces and the Spanish army, allied with local supporters. There was much sympathy in the U.S. for the independence cause, but the U.S. declined to intervene militarily or to recognize the legitimacy of the Cuban government in arms, even though many European and Latin American nations had done so. In 1878 the Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba.

The island was exhausted after this long conflict and pro-independence agitation temporarily died down. There was also a prevalent fear that if the Spanish withdrew or if there were further civil strife, the increasingly expansionist U.S. would step in and annex the island. In 1879-1880, Cuban patriot Calixto Garcia attempted to start another war, known in Cuban history as the Little War, but received little support. Partly in response to U.S. pressure, slavery was abolished in 1886, although the African-descended minority remained socially and economically oppressed, despite formal civic equality granted in 1893. During this period rural poverty in Spain provoked by the Spanish Revolution of 1868 and its aftermath led to even greater Spanish emigration to Cuba.

During the 1890s pro-independence agitation revived, fueled by resentment of the restrictions imposed on Cuban trade by Spain and hostility to Spain's increasingly oppressive and incompetent administration of Cuba. Few of the promises for economic reform made by the Spanish government in the Pact of Zanjon were kept. In April 1895 a new war was declared, led by the writer and poet José Martí who had organized the war over 10 years while in exile in the U.S. and proclaimed Cuba an independent republic — Martí was killed at Dos Rios shortly after landing in Cuba with the eastern expeditionary force. His death immortalized him and he has become Cuba's national hero.

The Spanish armed forces totaled about 200,000 troops against a much smaller rebel army which relied mostly on guerilla and sabotage tactics to fight battles, and the Spaniards retaliated with a campaign of suppression. General Valeriano Weyler was appointed military governor of Cuba, and as a repressive measure he herded the rural population into what he called reconcentrados, described by international observers as "fortified towns." These reconcentrados are often considered the prototype for the 20th century concentration camps. Between 200,000 and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease during this period in the camps. These numbers were verified by the Red Cross and U.S. Senator (and former Secretary of War) Redfield Proctor. U.S. and European protests against Spanish conduct on the island followed.

In 1897, fearing U.S. intervention, Spain moved to a more conciliatory policy, promising home rule with an elected legislature. The rebels rejected this offer and the war for independence continued.

Education

Before and during the present government, Cuba has boasted some of the highest rates of education and literacy in the Americas. The Cuban state, through tax receipts, funds education for all Cuban citizens including university education. Private educational institutions are not permitted. School attendance is compulsory from ages six to the end of basic secondary education (normally at 15), and all students, regardless of age or gender, wear school uniforms with the color denoting grade level. Primary education lasts for six years, secondary education is divided into basic and pre-university education. Higher education is provided by universities, higher institutes, higher pedagogical institutes, and higher polytechnic institutes. The University of Havana was founded in 1728 and there are a number of other well established colleges and universities. The Cuban Ministry of Higher Education also operates a scheme of distance education which provides regular afternoon and evening courses in rural areas for agricultural workers. Education has a strong political and ideological emphasis, and students progressing to higher education are expected to have a commitment to the goals of the Cuban government. Cuba has also provided state subsidized education to foreign nationals, including U.S. students, who are trained as doctors at the Latin American School of Medicine. The program provides for full scholarships, including accommodation, and its graduates are meant to return to their countries to offer low-cost healthcare. Internet access is limited

It is required that all applicants to universities in Cuba gain a letter from the government (the "Committee for the Defence of the Revolution") stating that they have a good "political and moral background" in order to apply. There have been claims that such letters are withheld because of an applicant (or relative) being politically undesirable. The validity of these claim or how often letters are refused is not easily verifiable and so there is no consensus on whether this amounts to widespread political oppression or just a few isolated cases.

Compay Segundo

Compay Segundo (November 18, 1907 – July 13, 2003) was a Cuban musician and songwriter.

Born Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz in the town of Siboney, in the East of Cuba, he moved to the city of Santiago de Cuba at age 9. In his early years he played the guitar, the clarinet, the bongos, and the congas. He became a songwriter and performer, well-known to fans of Cuban music as the second voice and tres player for Los Compadres, a group he formed in 1948 with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo.

Compadre, or compay for short, in Spanish indicates the relationship between a godfather and the parents of the godchild; thus someone's "compadre" is the godfather of his or her offspring, "comadre" being the female version; as a colloquialism the term designates a good friend).

Los Compadres were one of the most successful Cuban bands of their time. Their music still enjoys considerable popularity in the Spanish speaking Caribbean. Greater international fame came first in 1994, when he went to Spain, then later in 1997, with the release of the Buena Vista Social Club album, a hugely successful recording which won several Grammy awards. Compay Segundo appeared in the film of the same title, made subsequently by Wim Wenders.

Segundo's most famous composition is "Chan Chan", the opening track on the Buena Vista Social Club album, whose four opening chords are instantly recognizable all over the world. "Chan Chan" was recorded by Segundo himself various times as well as by countless other Latin artists.

At a fiesta he sang to President Fidel Castro, who took his pulse and joked about his vitality despite his 90-plus years. "Who could have imagined that?" he asked when he found himself at the Vatican City, performing "Chan Chan" before Pope John Paul II. He explained his longevity simply: mutton consommé and a drink of rum.

He predicted that he would live to be 115, but died of kidney failure in Havana, twenty years short of his ambition.

Compay Segundo was also the inventor of the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument, created to eliminate a harmonic jump in the spanish gitaur and the tres.

In 2007, the hundredth anniversary of Segundo's birth was celebrated with a concert of his compositions performed by a symphony orchestra in Havana.

Discography

• 1942-1955
  • "Sentimiento guajiro"
  • "Cantando en el llano"
  • "Compay Segundo y Compay Primo"
  • "Mi son oriental"
  • "Los reyes del son"
  • "Los compadres"

• 1956-1995
  • "Balcón de Santiago"
  • "Balcón de Santiago - Reedición"
  • "Saludo, Compay"

• 1996-2002
  • "Cien años de son"
  • "Son del monte"
  • "Buena Vista Social Club"
  • "Antología" (1997)
  • "Lo mejor de la vida"
  • "Calle salud" 1999
  • "Yo soy del norte"
  • "Antología" (2001)
  • "Las flores de la vida"
  • "Duets" 2002 Anthology of Compay Segundo's duos

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban revolutionary leader who served as the country's 22nd president and led the country from January 1959 until his retirement in February 2008. Castro began his political life with nationalist critiques of Batista, and of United States political and corporate influence in Cuba. He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of the authorities. He eventually led the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated and later released. He then traveled to Mexico to organize and train for the guerrilla invasion of Cuba that took place in December 1956.

He came to power in an armed revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and was shortly thereafter sworn in as the Prime Minister of Cuba. In 1965 he became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. In 1976 he became President of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers. He also held the supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.

Following intestinal surgery from an undisclosed digestive illness believed to have been diverticulitis, he transferred his responsibilities to the First Vice-President, his younger brother Raúl Castro, on July 31, 2006. On February 19, 2008, five days before his mandate was to expire, he announced he would neither seek nor accept a new term as either president or commander-in-chief. On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly elected Raúl Castro to succeed him as the President of Cuba. Fidel Castro remains First Secretary of the Communist Party.