Are you sad to see Castro step down as President and Commander in Chief of Cuba?

Nearly three-quarters of Cuba's population have known no other leader and his resistance to America has won him a global following that survived the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was America’s enemy number one during the Cold War and survived several assassination attempts by the CIA (one involving an exploding cigar). He also stood at the centre of the Cuban missile crisis which brought the Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war.

Born on August 13, 1926, Castro attended Catholic schools before graduating from the University of Havana with a degree in law.He later ran for a parliamentary seat, but then dictator Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government and cancelled the election.

After his legal challenge to the regime failed, Castro assembled an unsuccessful rebel force, and was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At the time he delivered his celebrated "history will absolve me" speech.

Pardoned after just two years, he headed to Mexico where he trained a group of revolutionaries called the 26th of July Movement. His forces’ first invasion of Cuba failed, but Castro’s guerilla war quickly won him many supporters and eventually, on January 1, 1959, Batista fled the island and Castro assumed power. He proceeded to nationalise all foreign property, leading to relentless hostility towards him from the United States, which boycott Cuba to this day.

The destruction of the Soviet Union, however, reduced Cuba to a dire economic state and left Castro a diminished international figure.However, his supporters claim that Cuba under his rule has made impressive domestic strides. They cite figures showing that good medical care is available freely for all, there is 98 per cent literacy and Cuban’s infant mortality rates compare favourably with western nations.

In recent years Castro has also cultivated a strong friendship with Venezuela’s controversial leftist president Hugo Chavez, working to mobilise anti-American sentiment in Latin America.