History Will Tell - Fidel Castro

Description

Fifty years ago, Fidel Castro led a successful armed revolt that overthrew the U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Battista. Today weakened by a long illness, Fidel Castro has had to relinquish power.

What will Cuba’s future be once its legendary leader has disappeared? Will the country open up to democracy or remain isolated: the ultimate assessment of Fidel’s era will depend on this choice.

As Castro approaches death’s door, he is faced by his main witness, Commandant Huber Matos. The man who certainly was Che’s and the Castro brothers’ closest strategist in the Sierra Maestra, the man who was so popular that Fidel thought that he would overshadow him, the man who was sentenced to a twenty-year-long imprisonment for being a "too revolutionary", reexamines the history of the Cuban Revolution from the attack of the Moncada to the recent transfer of power to Fidel Castro’s brother Raúl.

With no words of revenge, Hubert Matos remembers the details of the Cuban Revolution.

The topics discussed in this series include:

- Fighting against Battista 1952-1958
- The heroes of the guerilla war, military leaders and icons
- Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, Commander of the 8th column
- Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriaran, Commander of the 2nd column
- Victorious Revolution
- Fidel Castro becomes Prime Minister 1959
- President Urrutia falls into disfavor
- Communism lurking
- Hubert Matos is arrested and Camilo Cienfuegos disappears
- Hubert Matos is imprisoned for 20 years. He is set free in 1979

History Will Tell - Fidel Castro

Events