President Fidel Castro (Cuba) Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Fidel Castro (1926-2016), university educated and from a wealthy family, participated in a failed 1953 attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. He returned to Cuba in late 1956, he led a successful armed struggle to gain power, ousting dictator Fulgencio Batista, and becoming Cuba's Prime Minister (1959-1976). He served over three decades longer as President (1976-2008). In poor health, he resigned his government offices in 2008, transferring power to his brother Raul, but remained First Secretary of the Communist Party, continuing to write articles on public affairs. After gaining power, Castro transformed Cuba into a socialist economy and society and sought to free the nation from US domination. To achieve these ends, he used authoritarian methods and turned to the Soviet Union to support. He also supported revolutionary movements in other parts of the world. These policies, and the confiscation of American property on the island, prompted the U.S. to break relations with his regime and to seek his overthrow. The failed invasion of CIA-trained Cuban émigrés at the Bay of Pigs (April 1961) and the Cuban missile crisis (October 1962) were the most dramatic moments in this long history of confrontation. Cubans fleeing Castro's dictatorship settled in the US, becoming an important advocacy group opposed to normalized relations with Castro's Cuba.