Fidel Castro

When Fidel Castro first set out to take control of Cuba, he was not a Communist or even a socialist. Instead, like many Cubans, he simply wanted to rid Cuba of its corrupt and repressive leader, Fulgencio Batista, and create a society that served the people of Cuba, not foreign investors. To this end, he espoused land reform, improved education and health care, industrialization, profit sharing, and political and civil liberties. Many of these reforms were addressed in the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but Batista suspended that in 1952.

On July 26, 1953, Castro led a failed assault on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba. He was arrested by the Batista government, tried, and sentenced to prison. This excerpt is taken from his defense plea (Castro, a trained lawyer, spoke for himself) during his trial. It outlines his political agenda...