"[145], Castro appointed himself president of the National Tourist Industry, introducing unsuccessful measures to encourage African-American tourists to visit, advertising Cuba as a tropical paradise free of racial discrimination. [294] His diet was quintessentially Cuban, based on traditional pescatarian cuisine but also the additional influence from his native Galicia. [400][469] Popular with women and often recognized as a sex symbol in Cuba,[461] Castro never had difficulty in finding love and seduction, and Snchez denies that Castro ever engaged in any unusual or un-consensual behaviour. [491] The Daily Telegraph noted that around the world he was "either praised as a brave champion of the people, or derided as a power-mad dictator. Castro sought to offset the ensuing market decline by allowing the implementation of a limited number of economically liberal reforms. But once established as Cubas leader he began to pursue more radical policies: Cubas private commerce and industry were nationalized; sweeping land reforms were instituted; and American businesses and agricultural estates were expropriated. In the west of Cuba, he had three residences: Casa Americana (confiscated from an American businessman connected to Batista); Rancho la Tranquilidad in the locality of Mil Cumbres; and La Deseada, a hunting lodge utilized in the winter for duck hunting and fishing trips. He was passionate about cars and frequently earned the ire of his father's escort unit for disrupting the work of the mechanics. [449], Until 1979, Castro's primary vehicle was a black ZiL limousine, first an armoured convertible ZIL-111 from Khrushchev, a ZIL-114 and briefly a ZIL-4104 gifted to him by Leonid Brezhnev, while his escort would accompany him in several Alfa Romeo 1750s and 2000s. [431] At over 6feet 3inches (1.91m) tall with a few inches added from his combat boots, Castro usually towered over most foreign leaders he met with, giving him a dominating presence in any room or photo that was taken, which he used to his advantage (for comparison, Abraham Lincoln and Charles de Gaulle, both well known for their tall heights, stood at 6'4" and 6'5", respectively). [239] When that year's production quota was not met, Castro offered to resign during a public speech, but assembled crowds insisted he remain. ROME -- Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world" after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. [450] In 1979, during the Non-Aligned movement summit at Havana, Saddam Hussein gave Castro his Armored Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL which he had brought from Baghdad and became his sole transport for the rest of his life. [255], Castro considered Africa to be "the weakest link in the imperialist chain", and at the request of Agostinho Neto he ordered 230 military advisers into Angola in November 1975 to aid Neto's Marxist MPLA in the Angolan Civil War. His parents divorced and . [120] Accompanying celebrations at news of Batista's downfall on 1 January 1959, Castro ordered the MR-26-7 to prevent widespread looting and vandalism. Some say Cuba has not met the conditions required to lift it, and the US will look weak for lifting the sanctions. [20] The American historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote that Castro "began his career as a revolutionary with no ideology at all: he was a student politician turned street fighter turned guerrilla, a voracious reader, an interminable speaker, and a pretty good baseball player".[21]. In their view, he should be "applauded" for his regime's "substantial improvements" to healthcare and education, but criticized for its "ruthless suppression of freedom of expression.