Castro Becomes Premier of Cuba

Date: February 16, 1959 • Location: Topes de Collantes, Cuba

Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011. He served as prime minister from 1959 to 1976, president from 1976 to 2008, and first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, under his administration Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.