It has always protected me,” he told journalists in 1979, baring his chest to prove the point. The unlikely victory brought the “red menace” of Communism to the United States’ doorstep at the height of the Cold War.Īlarmed, the US Central Intelligence Agency and Cuban exiles tried to assassinate Castro 634 times, his ex-intelligence chief, Fabian Escalante, has estimated.Ĭastro once told Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet he nearly always carried his Browning pistol just in case.īut he denied reports he wore a bullet-proof vest. The 26-year-old lawyer was captured and jailed for the failed raid, which ended with dozens of rebels killed or executed by dictator Fulgencio Batista’s forces.įast forward six years, and Castro was triumphantly rolling into Havana, having returned from exile to lead a guerrilla army that once numbered just 12 men to defeat Batista and his military of 80,000.
No one could have predicted his place in history when he launched his revolutionary career with a botched attack on Cuba’s Moncada military barracks in 1953. The former Cuban leader, pictured in February of this year He has given up his iconic Cohiba cigars. His long black beard has turned a wispy gray. The years have left their mark on the father of the Cuban Revolution, who transferred power to his younger brother Raul 10 years ago.
Here are six snapshots of this magnetic, polarising giant of the 20th century, who has beaten the odds to hang on well into the 21st. AP / Press Association Images / Press Association ImagesĪFTER SURVIVING MORE than 600 assassination attempts, defying 10 US presidents, and shaping half a century of history, Fidel Castro turns 90 today.
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