Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, leader of country's Communist movement, dies at 90

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, in 2006.

(Image credit: ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 26 November 2016

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90, Cuban state TV announced early Saturday. No cause of death was disclosed.

Castro led Cuba as a one-party state for 49 years, helming the country's Communist movement in an effort to reduce rampant inequality. He leaves a complicated human rights legacy, as his stringent policies benefited the country's poorest citizens, but at times at the expense of free speech, as he often jailed political dissidents.

In 2008, Castro transferred power to his brother Raul, who negotiated with President Obama a thawing of diplomatic relations with the U.S. earlier this year. In April, Castro, who often criticized American politicians and politics, said of his brother's negotiations: "I don't trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this does not mean I reject a pacific solution to the conflicts."