By AFPMore by this AuthorHAVANAGuerrilla revolutionary and communist idol, Fidel Castro was a holdout against history who turned tiny Cuba into a thorn in the paw of the mighty capitalist United States. The former Cuban president, who died aged 90 on Friday, said he would never retire from politics. Famed for his rumpled olive fatigues, straggly beard and the cigars he reluctantly gave up for health reasons, Fidel Castro kept a tight clamp on dissent at home while defining himself abroad with his defiance of Washington. LAWYER TURNED FIGHTEROnce in undisputed power, Castro, a Jesuit-schooled lawyer, aligned himself with the Soviet Union. After stepping aside in 2006, Fidel Castro recovered slowly from surgery and kept rallying on the sidelines to push his Revolution into the 21st century.

Source: Daily Nation November 26, 2016 08:44 UTC