Fidel Castro Resigns
On 24 February 2008, the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power unanimously voted Raúl Castro Ruz, Fidel Castro’s brother, as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. In a 19 February 2008 letter, Cuban leader Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz announced that he would not accept the positions of President and Commander-in-Chief at that month’s National Assembly meetings.
Fidel was a Cuban revolutionary and political leader who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist-Leninist and Cuban anti-imperialist nationalist, he also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under Fidel, Cuba became a one-party socialist state, and people-based revolutionary initiatives were implemented throughout society.
Born on 13 August 1926 in Birán, Oriente, Cuba, son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist and anti-imperialist ideas while studying law at the University of Havana. He planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year’s imprisonment, Castro travelled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the “26th of July Movement”, with his brother Raúl and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista’s forc
