Castro: The revolutionary beard

This included the elimination of Castro, who has subsequently had to deal with over 600 attempts on his life, which he believes were directly organised by the CIA.

On April 17, 1961 about 1,500 CIA-trained mercenaries landed on Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) in Cuba, only to be defeated by the Cuban forces within about 60 hours — between dawn of the 17th and 6pm on the 19th, Castro narrates.

“The battle was fought within sight of the American ships offshore. We took about 1,200 mercenaries prisoner, almost all the enemy forces who had been in the battle, the exceptions being, of course, the dead.” Cuba latter traded the prisoners for medical supplies.

Former American President Jimmy Carter, who Castro says is the most honest president the US has ever had, gets a word of praise.

“He wanted to straighten out, to a degree, the relations between our two countries. Some of his people visited us in Cuba, but there was always a demand. There was the situation in Angola, and the revolutionary struggle in El Salvador — that is, problems and situations with regard to which we couldn’t make any concession whatsoever. But there was a man there who wanted to change the policy with Cuba.”

In the face of the US blockade and economic war that has lasted almost half a century, Castro says: “Cuba has been able to eradicate illiteracy in one year. Cuba has given free education to 100 per cent of its children. It is also first in the world in teacher-per-capita ratio. The average education of a Cuban citizen today is at least ninth-grade.

“Eighty-five per cent of the population owns its own home, tax free. The other 15 per cent pay an absolutely symbolic rent — barely 10 per cent of their salary.”

With respect to its health policy, Cuba has an infant mortality rate under 6 per 1,000 live births.

With a 0.07 per cent Aids rate, it has one of the lowest indexes of Aids in the world.

It has more than 70,000 doctors (30,000 abroad and no fewer than 40,000 on the island), plus 25,000 medical students.

“Today, Cuba has the highest number of doctors per capita in the world. Its international contingent of doctors specialising in disaster situations and epidemics work all over the world. Africa alone has more than 3,000 Cuban doctors.”

The US declined to accept the 1,610 doctors offered by Cuba during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Castro has been put on a list of the richest men in the world, which he denies, saying: “I honestly don’t own a thing. I lack for nothing, materially speaking. I have what I need. I don’t need much. Let people try to find any leader of the Revolution who has an account in some foreign bank; we’ll give anybody that manages to find such a thing whatever they want. My salary, at the exchange rate of 25 pesos per dollar, is $30 a month. But I’m not dying of hunger.

“I’ll have the glory of dying without a penny of convertible currency. I’ve been offered millions to write memoirs and books, but I’ve never done it. I’ve always said, ‘If I do it, it’ll be for schools.’

“And a person is at peace in his own mind, really happy and strong, with that sort of rule.”