I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.

" President of Cuba's Central Bank Francisco Soberón called the claims a "grotesque slander" asserting that money made from various state owned companies is pumped back into the island's economy "in sectors including health education science internal security national defense and solidarity projects with other countries. Meeting President-elect Rómulo Betancourt Castro proposed greater relations between the two nations unsuccessfully requesting a loan of $300000000 and a new deal for Venezuelan oil. For 37 years Castro publicly wore nothing but olive-green military fatigues emphasizing his role as the perpetual revolutionary but in a 1994 visit to the Ibero-American Conference in Cartagena surprised assembled dignitaries by appearing in a guayabera.

In 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban revolution with Cuba becoming a one-party state under Communist Party governance. Countering these threats Castro formed an economic and military alliance with the Soviets and allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Politically a Marxist-Leninist under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state; industry and businesses were nationalized and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society.