Labels:text | human face | man | human beard | screenshot | clock OCR: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Castro, Fidel Fidel Castro The world's longest-serving Communist leader, Fidel Castro trained as a lawyer but quickly became involved in guerrilla activities against the corrupt Cuban government of President Batista, which he overthrew in 1959. Fruitless attempts to win U.S. favor led Castro to seek support from the Soviet Union. He seized the assets of foreign companies, provoked the mass emigration of 700,000 Cubans (including much of the middle class), and established a centrally planned economy in the country. In 1961 Castro successfully repelled the Bay of Pigs invasion organized by the CIA and carried out mostly by Cuban refugees based in the U.S. However, he played virtually no part in the resolution of the international crisis in 1962 when Soviet missiles were discovered on Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary Cuban soil. A charismatic leader, he ruthlessly and Communist leader, 1927 - suppressed dissent but periodically allowed boatloads of opponents and undesirables to flee to the U.S. His reaction to the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991 was to declare "nothing and nobody will make Cuba deviate from the socialist path." CHRONOLOGY
