Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies, aged 90

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Jason Collie26 November 2016

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died aged 90.

The socialist revolutionary's death was announced by his brother, Raul Castro - the incumbent Cuban president - on state television late on Friday.

Castro stepped aside 10 years ago after suffering a severe gastrointestinal illness, and before his 90th birthday in August he told supporters he expected to die soon.

He led a coup in 1959 to overthrow the regime of the US-backed former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, and remained hostile to Washington throughout his life.

As President Barack Obama moved to heal relations with Havana, Castro responded: "We don't need the empire to give us anything".

When he closed the twice-a-decade congress of the Cuban Communist Party in April he called on his countrymen to maintain socialist ideals in the face of closer ties with the US.

Castro's last appearance in public was at an event to mark his birthday.

The gala celebrated key moments in his life, including the US-backed attempt to invade in the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

Key moments in Cuba under Castro

January 1 1959 - Castro's rebels take power as dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba.

June 1960 - Cuba nationalises US-owned oil refineries after they refuse to process Soviet oil. Nearly all other US businesses expropriated by October.

October 1960 - Washington bans exports to Cuba, other than food and medicine.

April 16 1961 - Castro declares Cuba socialist state.

April 17 1961 - Bay of Pigs: CIA-backed Cuban exiles stage failed invasion.

February 7 1962 - Washington bans all Cuban imports.

October 1962 - US blockade forces removal of Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba. US President John F Kennedy agrees privately not to invade Cuba.

March 1968 - Castro's government takes over almost all private businesses.

April 1980 - Mariel boatlift: Cuba says anyone can leave; some 125,000 Cubans flee.

December 1991 - Collapse of Soviet Union devastates Cuban economy.

August 1994 - Castro declares he will not stop Cubans trying to leave; some 40,000 take to sea heading for United States.

March 18 2003 - 75 Cuban dissidents sentenced to prison.

July 31 2006 - Castro announces has had operation, temporarily cedes power to brother Raul.

February 19 2008 - Castro resigns as president.

July 2010 - Castro re-emerges after years in seclusion, visiting a scientific institute, giving a TV interview, talking to academics and even taking in a dolphin show at the aquarium.

April 19 2011 - Castro is replaced by his brother Raul as first secretary of the Communist Party, the last official post he held. The elder Castro made a brief appearance at the Congress, looking frail as a young aide guided him to his seat.

April 19 2016 -Castro delivers a valedictory speech at the Communist Party's seventh Congress, declaring: "Soon I'll be like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain."

November 25 2016 - Fidel Castro dies

It was a defining moment in the Cold War, which reached its peak a year later when the world came to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Castro survived numerous assassination attempts by US spies, including a plot to kill him with an exploding cigar.

But he clung on to power, enduring decades under a crippling US trade embargo.

As its greatest ally, the Soviet Union, collapsed, Cuba remained a pariah Communist state at a cost of becoming one of the world's poorest nations.

When his brother opened the door to a thawing of relations with the US in 2014 Castro cautiously blessed the deal - but only after a month-long silence.

Castro was born on August 13 1926, in eastern Cuba's sugar country, where his father, a Spanish immigrant, organised labour for US sugar companies.

After attending Jesuit schools he received law and social science degrees from the University of Havana.

His first foray into violent subversion came in 1953 when he and Raul joined rebels in an attack on a military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. Most of his comrades were killed and the brothers were jailed.

After receiving a pardon he fled to Mexico and raised a rebel force who said to Cuba, only for most to die in a botched landing.

But after rallying support in the country's eastern mountains he led a revolutionary force into Havana and unseated Batista on New Year's Day, 1959.

But after rallying support in the country's eastern mountains he led a revolutionary force into Havana and unseated Batista on New Year's Day, 1959.

Declaring victory, he said: "I am not interested in power nor do I envisage assuming it at any time. All that I will do is to make sure that the sacrifices of so many compatriots should not be in vain, whatever the future may hold in store for me."

When his brother opened the door to a thawing of relations with the US in 2014, Castrocautiously blessed the deal - but only after a month-long silence.

Former Labour Cabinet minister and anti-apartheid leader Peter Hain, now Lord Hain, said: "Although responsible for indefensible human rights and free speech abuses, Castrocreated a society of unparalleled access to free health, education and equal opportunity despite an economically throttling USA siege.

"His troops inflicted the first defeat on South Africa's troops in Angola in 1988, a vital turning point in the struggle against apartheid."

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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