Fidel “Fidelito” Castro Díaz-Balart, known for being the first descendant of the former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, committed suicide Thursday in the capital of the Caribbean country: Havana. Officials assured that he was suffering from depression for several months. He was 68 years old.
Born in 1949, Fidel Castro’s son – thus, actual President of Cuba Raul Castro’s nephew – was commonly known by the Cuban people as “Fidelito,” or Little Fidel if translated to the English language.
This information was first given by the government of Cuba’s website, Cubadebate.
Authorities said that the nuclear physicist and oldest son of Fidel Castro had been treated for a deep depression since many months ago. However, the exact number of months was not reported. He had to be hospitalized due to a recent mental breakdown and doctors receipted him with different medication to his home.
Loyal to his father
Mr. Castro Díaz-Balart was the only son that Fidel Castro had with his first wife, Mirta Díaz-Balart – the daughter of a prominent pre-revolution politician. He was physically similar to his father. But unlike Fidel – who was a lawyer, politician and a leader of the guerrilla – Fidelito was a scientist. In fact, he was the science adviser to Council of State of Cuba, and vice president of Cuba’s Academy of Sciences.
What surprised the Cuban people was not Fidelito’s death itself, but the actual circumstances in which he attended to end with his life. Like any other member of the Castro family, he preferred to stay away from the public eye. Thus, anyone barely knew about the health-state of Fidelito.
Fidel Castro and his ex-wife separated before he overthrew the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, in 1959, and became the leader of Cuba. She and her relatives then moved to the US, where each of them took different roads to fight against Castro father. Today, Fidelito’s cousin Mario Díaz-Balart is a Republican congressman in Florida and a sharp critic of the Cuban government.
At first, Ms. Díaz-Balart had taken her son with her. But in the middle of Fidelito’s infancy, Castro managed to bring him back to Havana. According to all his mother-side relatives, he had been kidnaped by his father. However, when he was young, he appeared with his Fidel in Havana while he was being interviewed by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. The boy was holding a puppy and talking fluent English.
A scientist in the revolution
When Fidelito became older, he moved to the Soviet Union and earned his degree. As his official biography says, he then married a Russian woman and had three children: Fidel Antonio Castro Smirnov, Mirta María Castro Smirnova, and José Raúl Castro Smirnov. However, that marriage ended and he then joined María Victoria Barreiro.
After he returned to Cuba, he started leading the nuclear power program of the island. However, he had some misunderstandings with his father and stopped playing his official role. Fidelito hardly then appeared on the media until several years later.
When Raul Castro became President of Cuba in 2008, he named Fidelito as his scientific adviser – position in which he lasted until the day of his death. It was then when the scientist started to appear more frequently in public, including news stations.
In 2015, at the Havana, Fidelito was photographed at a party with model Naomi Campbell and socialite Paris Hilton.
Plans for energy resources
Before the Soviet Union collapsed, he commanded the nuclear program of the country from 1980 to 1992.
Fidelito used to talk about how loyal he was to the Cuban revolution. However, as some analysts have primarily agreed, he felt tired because his father never gave him too much prominence in the decisions of the states. For instance, the development of energy resources.
The academic colleague, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, told Reuters that Fidelito wanted to integrate his ideas for developing renewable in the country. However, he was never heard.
“I imagine that was disappointing for him,” Mr Benjamin-Alvarado said.
Local media didn’t say much about the Fidelito’s funeral, but only that it was going to be planned by his family.
Source: BBC