"With profound sorrow, I appear on television to inform our people, the friends of our America and of the world, that today, 25 November 2016, at 22:29, the commander-in-chief of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, passed away. In respect of the wishes expressed by comrade Fidel, his remains will be cremated in the early hours of the morning of Saturday the 26th; the organising committee will give our people detailed information regarding the organisation of the posthumous tribute to be paid to the founder of the Cuban Revolution. Hasta la victoria siempre!"

Visibly moved, with these words, delivered live on television, the president of Cuba and Fidel's brother, Raúl Castro, announced in the Italian night a piece of news that perhaps closes one of the longest and most mythologised stories in contemporary politics: Castro, at the age of 90, is gone.

From guerrilla warfare to revolution

Since 2007, Raúl had assumed the roles of president of the Council of State and commander-in-chief in place of his brother, who had by then been rendered unable to continue by serious health problems — so much so that on several occasions in previous years rumours of his death had erroneously circulated. That had marked the end of a period of fully 48 years of Fidel's rule, which had an enormously powerful impact on Cuba, transforming the island into a true historical unique.

Born into a well-to-do family of Spanish origin, Fidel joined the anti-imperialist league during his university law studies, but his debut in a political career was blocked by the coup of Fulgencio Batista in 1952: the alternative for him at that point was armed struggle, and the famous failed assault on the Moncada, which would cost him a 15-year prison sentence (of which only one year was actually served) and would make him famous for the now historic phrase: "Condemn me, it does not matter, history will absolve me".

And history would prove Fidel right with interest: having returned to Cuba clandestinely after some years in exile and at the head of the 26th of July Movement, made up of a band of guerrilla fighters including Ernesto Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, he would succeed in 1959 in bringing the Cuban army to surrender and Batista to flight: the Revolution had begun.

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The Bay of Pigs and the embargo

Differences of opinion with Cienfuegos (who wanted a return to the democratic constitution and to elections) and Guevara's reluctance to take on government roles soon placed Castro in the position of sole leader, and reforms in a communist direction along with agreements with the Soviet Union quickly led to isolation from America and the West: the failed US attack at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the economic embargo marked the end of relations with the United States and Cuba's near-total forced isolationism.

Healthcare, human rights, nationalisations

In domestic politics, Castro's actions were characterised by sweeping nationalisation of industries, massive confiscations and collectivisations of land, Soviet-style economic planning, and purges of those who dissented from the regime, but also by a strong push for literacy, scientific research (especially in pharmaceuticals) and the creation of an advanced public healthcare system: at present, Cuba's literacy rates, infant mortality rates and life expectancy place it alongside the most developed countries in the world, while the same cannot be said of its levels of democracy, respect for human rights and media freedom.

Only with the transfer of power into the hands of his brother Raúl did Cuba begin to take some steps towards privatisation and also towards the normalisation of relations with the United States, although the advent of Donald Trump in the White House had been seen as a potential obstacle to the ending of the embargo.