Military fatigues, cigars
The bearded Fidel took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.
He was demonized by the United States and its allies but admired by many leftists around the world, especially socialist revolutionaries in Latin America and Africa.
Nelson Mandela, once freed from prison in 1990, repeatedly thanked Castro for his efforts in helping to weaken apartheid. In April, in a rare public appearance at the Communist Party conference, Fidel Castro shocked party apparatchiks by referring to his own imminent mortality.
“Soon I will be like all the rest. Our turn comes to all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain,” he said.
Transforming Cuba from a playground for rich Americans into a symbol of resistance to Washington, Castro crossed swords with 10 US presidents while in power, and outlasted nine of them.
He fended off a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 as well as countless assassination attempts.
Wearing green military fatigues and chomping on cigars for many of his years in power, Castro was famous for long, fistpounding speeches filled with blistering rhetoric, often aimed at the United States.
At home, he swept away capitalism and won support for bringing schools and hospitals to the poor. But he also created legions of enemies and critics, concentrated among the exiles in Miami who saw him as a ruthless tyrant.
“With Castro’s passing, some of the heat may go out of the antagonism between Cuba and the United States, and between Cuba and Miami, which would be good for everyone,” said William M LeoGrande, co-author of a book on USCuba relations.
Castro’s death - which would once have thrown a question mark over Cuba’s future - seems unlikely to trigger a crisis as Raul Castro is firmly ensconced in power. Fidel Castro no longer held leadership posts in the last years of his life. He wrote newspaper commentaries on world affairs and occasionally met foreign leaders, but lived in semi-seclusion.
Still, the passing of the man known to most Cubans as “El Comandante” - the commander - or simply “Fidel” leaves a huge void in the country he dominated for so long. It also underlines the generational change in Cuba’s communist leadership.
Raul Castro has vowed to step down when his term ends in 2018, and the Communist Party has elevated younger leaders to its Politburo, including 56-yearold Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is first vice president and the heir apparent.