The Catholic News Agency ( CNA ), in an online news story article posted by Alejandro Bermudez on Saturday, March 31, 2012, stated that, in response to a specific request made personally to Cuban President Raul Castro by Pope Benedict XVI, during his Apostolic Visitation of Leon, Mexico and the island in March of 2012, following the pattern of small advances in Church-Cuban relations, it was decreed by the Communist Party and Castro and his advisers that in 2012, Good Friday would be made a holiday, with a possibility that the move could perhaps be made permanent ( following the move of the late Pope John Paul II, who got Fidel Castro to declare Christmas Day a holiday-which is still the case-due to a personal request during his landmark trip in 1998 ).

* Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz-Gold

Hours after a parade of his new Soviet tanks and artillery, Dictator Fidel Castro suddenly confronted the U.S. with a blunt and drastic demand: within 48 hours, the U.S. had to reduce its embassy and consulate staffs in Cuba to a total of eleven persons ( the embassy staff alone totaled 87 U.S. citizens, plus 120 Cuban employees ).

they had orders to that effect straight from President Kennedy, who thought at first, as did most others, that it was four followers of Cuba's Fidel Castro who had taken over the 707.

Rumors flew from lip to lip that Fidel Castro was on his way to Havana, coming from the mountains where he had fought Batista for five years.

I was full of hope as Fidel Castro came into Havana.

A suspicion was growing that Fidel Castro was a Communist.

* 1926 – Fidel Castro, Cuban lawyer and politician, 15th President of Cuba

* 1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.

* 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

* 1956 – Fidel Castro declares himself at war with the President of Cuba.

* 2011 – Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years of holding the title.

The U. S. Senate Select Committee chaired by Senator Frank Church ( the Church Committee ) reported in 1975 that it had found " concrete evidence of at least eight plots involving the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro from 1960 to 1965.

According to Joe R. Reeder, Under Secretary of the Army from 1993 to 1997, Fidel Castro has used body doubles.

Portuondo and other Bacardí family members initially supported the Cuban revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro and the broader M-26-7 movement: Bosch personally donated tens of thousands of dollars to the movement, and acted as an intermediary between the revolutionaries and the CIA to assuage the latter's concerns.

He was also allegedly involved in a CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro ; documents uncovered during congressional investigations into John F Kennedy's death bring to light a message outlining how he had plans to assassinate Castro, his brother Raúl Castro, and Che Guevara.

Soon after Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist state, Costa Rican President Mario Echandi ended diplomatic relations on 10 September 1961 with the island through Executive Decree Number 2, in compliance with sanctions placed on Cuba by the Organization of American States.

In the years following its independence, Cuba saw significant economic development, but also political corruption and a succession of despotic leaders, culminating in the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista by the communist revolutionary Fidel Castro during the 1953-9 Cuban Revolution.

Fidel Castro was a friend of the Marxist-Leninist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose regime killed hundreds of thousands during the Ethiopian Red Terror of the late 1970s and who was later convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity.

In 2006, Fidel Castro took ill and withdrew from public life.

" In March 2012, the now-retired Fidel Castro met Pope Benedict XVI during the latter's visit to Cuba ; the two men discussed the role of the Catholic Church in Cuba, which has a large Catholic community.

The flow stopped in late 1959 when economic reforms by the then-new government of Fidel Castro prevented Cubans from buying cars on credit.

On 6 May 2005, President Fidel Castro reiterated that the island nation would not " be part of a disgraceful institution that has only humiliated the honor of Latin American nations ".

In an editorial published by Granma, Fidel Castro applauded the Assembly's " rebellious " move and said that the date would " be recalled by future generations.

Fidel Castro claims Israel practices " Zionist Fascism.

Though candid in expressing his admiration for Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and, later, Fidel Castro Ruz, Jagan in power asserted that the PPP's Marxist-Leninist principles must be adapted to Guyana's own particular circumstances.

The son of a Spanish immigrant father, Ángel Castro, and a Cuban mother of mixed ancestry, Lina Ruz, Raúl is the youngest of the three Castro brothers, Ramón, Fidel, and Raúl.

Members of the Politburo: Fidel Castro Ruz, Raúl Castro Ruz, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, Juan Almeida Bosque, José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, Concepción Campa Huergo, Julio Casas Regueiro, Leopoldo Cintra Frías, Abelardo Colome Ibarra, Misael Enamorado Dáger, Ramón Espinosa Martín, Yadira García Vera, Esteban Lazo Hernández, José Ramón Machado Ventura, Ulises Rosales del Toro, Abel Prieto Jiménez, Pedro Ross Leal, Pedro Sáez Montejo, Miguel Mario Díaz Canel Bermúdez, Ramiro Valdéz Menendez, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Alvaro López Miera, Salvador Valdés Mesa.

Fidel Castro's sister Juanita Castro filed a lawsuit in Spain against her niece Alina Fernández for libel over some passages in her autobiography that were about Juanita and Fidel's parents Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz.

In an attempt to allay concerns about his being a dangerous leftist ( as Velasco's vice president he had expressed warm sympathy for Cuban leader Fidel Castro Ruz and made a much-criticized trip to the Soviet Union ), Arosemena named a cabinet that included Liberals and even Conservatives and quickly sent former President Galo Plaza on a goodwill trip to Washington.

The 26th of July Movement (; M-26-7 ) was a vanguard revolutionary organization planned and led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara that in 1959 overthrew the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba.

Fidel " Eddie " Valdez Ramos, GCMG ( born March 18, 1928 ), popularly known as FVR, was the 12th President of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998.

Fidel Ramos was born on March 18, 1928 in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

1995 Ramos House ( Primicias St., Poblacion ), Lingayen, Pangasinan ( rented family house of Narciso Ramos & Angela Valdez, where Fidel & Leticia Ramos-Shahani were born ).

Edgar Fidel Cáceres ( born June 6, 1964 in Barquisimeto, Lara State, Venezuela ) is a former Major League Baseball second baseman and switch-hitter who played for the Kansas City Royals as a replacement player during the players ' strike in the 1995 season.

Fidel Henderson Edwards ( born 6 February 1982 in Gays, St Peter, Barbados ) is a West Indian cricketer and is the half brother of Pedro Collins.

Fidel and Raúl Castro were born there.

Alina Fernández Revuelta ( born March 19, 1956 ) is the daughter of Fidel Castro and an outspoken critic of the Cuban communist regime.

Carlos Jose Bringuier ( born June 22, 1934 ) is a Cuban exile in the United States of America who campaigned against Fidel Castro's government.

The idea was born when a member recommended " doing more than lobbying in Washington " to overthrow the Cuban Communist government of Fidel Castro.

Huber Matos Benítez ( born November 26, 1918 ) was a Cuban revolutionary who assisted Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and members of the 26th of July Movement in successfully overthrowing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista as part of the Cuban Revolution.

Amelita " Ming " Martinez-Ramos ( born December 29, 1927 ) is the wife of Philippine President Fidel Ramos and was the eleventh First Lady of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998.

Mirta Francisca de la Caridad Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez ( born September 30, 1928 ) was Fidel Castro's first wife, the daughter of Rafael José Díaz-Balart, a prominent Cuban politician and mayor of the town of Banes, and wife América Gutiérrez.

They had one child, a son, Fidel Ángel " Fidelito " Castro Díaz-Balart, born on September 1, 1949.

Priest Fidel Maiz, was born in Arroyos y Esteros and was a very important character during the War of the Triple Alliance.