He was arguably the world’s best known politician. Cuba was a tiny island of little consequence but Castro put it in the forefront of the politics and tensions of the cold war. He ousted by armed force a cruel and despotic dictatorship which made most Cuban’s lives a misery (which was inexplicably backed by the US and allowed organized crime to more or less run the country). He transformed the lives of his people for the better, but he was a cruel dictator who tolerated no opposition, which he executed in large numbers. He soon fell out with the Americans and became friends with the Russians. The Cuban Missile Crisis gave him a star on the sidewalk of history.
The Americans hated the notion of a communist regime on their doorstep and did everything possible to oust him, including a blockade which has lasted fifty years, but he survived everything and became a hero to half the world. The other half reviled him as a wicked tyrant. He was a bit of both but in absolute terms neither and there will never be agreement about his life or his legacy. His elderly brother, more of a reformer but still a communist dictator, soldiers on, but the time surely approaches for America to end this pointless blockade which did no more that hurt the innocent Cuban people and cement the Castros in power. Without that childish blockade the Castro reign would have ended decades ago.