Fidel Castro, aging and infirm after 47 years as Cuba's maximum leader and several CIA inspired assassination plots later, announced his retirement from governing this week. El Presidente inspired admiration around the world despite his unquestionable and sometimes harsh dictatorship. According to one human rights organization there are 306 political prisoners in Cuba. Reasons for the admiration are several and eclipse his spirited defiance of a belligerent superpower that has inflicted a crippling trade embargo against his nation since 1962 (the biggest US trading partner is communist China). Perhaps most notable are his accomplishments for the Cuban people in the fields of agricultural reform, education and health care. At a time when the richest country on earth does not provide health care for all it's citizens, it is sobering to know what Fidel Castro has done in Cuba, one of the poorest nations on earth:--Life expectancy at birth: male 75.11; female: 79.85 (US: 75.02; 80.82)
--Infant mortality rate: 6.22 deaths per 1,000 live births (US: 6.43)
--HIV/Aids adult prevalence rate: <0.6%
--HIV/Aids deaths per 100,000 per year: 4.4 (US: 5.4)
--Physicians per 1,000 population: 5.91 (US: 2.56)
--Hospital beds per 10,000 population: 49 (US: 33)
--Per capita GDP: $3,649 (US: $39,901)
--25,000 Cuban doctors are on humanitarian missions in 68 countries
--Last year 1,800 doctors from 47 developing countries graduated from Cuba's 21 medical schools
--Each year more than 5,000 "health tourists" travel to Cuba, generating more than $40m for Cuba
--Number of Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela to provide free health care: 20,000 (in exchange for, among other things, 90,000 barrels of oil per day)
--Number of doctors Fidel Castro offered to send to the US to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina: 1,586.
(Source: CIA World Factbook; World Health Organization)
"Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me." October 1953, while on trial for the failed rebel attack that launched the Cuban Revolution.