Reuters: Ailing Fidel Castro resigns as Cuban president after 49 years
Talkback
Title:David Teich. adds to the confusion.
Name:hubal
City: State:
"Castro was openly and avowedly a Communist"

He was a caudillo and adopted Communism when he was unable to get help and support from the US.
He was a pragmatist and nationalist above all else. A dictator he became, but a relatively benign one all the same, hence the affection for him to this day in Cuba. The CIA`s own assessment on his poltical persuasion was inconclusive. They were not persuaded that he was a communist. He had fallen out with the Communist party in Cuba before the revolution.