Editing Fidel Castro (section)

===Lifestyle===
Castro's primary residence was at ''Punto Cero'', a large and vegetative estate approximately 6&nbsp;km from the ''Palacio de la Revolution'' in the Siboney neighborhood.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=79}} The main house is an L-shaped two-story family mansion with a 600-square-yard footprint, a 50-foot-long swimming pool, six greenhouses providing fruit and vegetables for Fidel's and Raúl's families as well as their bodyguard units, and a large lawn with free-range chickens and cows. Close by is a second two-story building that houses the bodyguards and the domestic staff.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=79}} The house was decorated in a classical Caribbean style, with local wicker and wood furniture, porcelain plates, watercolor paintings, and art books. Sánchez described the estate as naturally beautiful and tastefully decorated, and while considered luxurious for the average Cuban, was not lavish or over-the-top compared to the residences of the [[Somoza family|Somoza clan]] or the [[Kim family (North Korea)|Kim dynasty]] of North Korea.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=80}} Raúl and [[Vilma Espín|Vilma]]'s house ''La Rinconada'' is located close by on 222nd street. Raúl usually hosted large family barbecues on Sundays, where Fidel would sometimes come, giving his extended family, sisters, and elder brother Ramón a rare opportunity to see him.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=195}} Next to ''Punto Cero'' is ''Unit 160'' which was the base of Fidel's bodyguard units. The base was over five acres large and surrounded by high walls, essentially a "city within a city" consisting of support personnel for transportation, communications, electronics, and food, and an extensive armory of Kalashnikovs, Makarovs, and Brownings. Members of that unit also assisted in Fidel's passion for Bovine breeding, and a stable was kept for some of Fidel's most prized cows.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=49}}

In addition to "Punto Cero", Castro had five other residences in Havana: ''Casa Cojimar'', his initial home after 1959 but disused by the 1970s; a house on 160th Street near the Playa district; ''Casa Carbonell'', maintained by Cuban Intelligence for his covert meetings with representatives of foreign groups or intelligence assets; A beach house in Santa Maria del Mar (next to the Tropico Hotel); and two houses retrofitted with air-raid shelters and connected to the MINFAR command bunkers for use in war: ''Casa Punta Brava'' (Dalia's old house before meeting Fidel) and ''Casa Gallego'', near the bodyguards base at Unit 160. 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 also had two homes in Matanzas, one in Ciego de Avila, a horse ranch ''Hacienda San Cayetano'' in [[Camagüey]] along with another house in a vacation compound for the Politburo nearby, ''Casa Guardalavaca'' in Holguin, and two residences in Santiago de Cuba (one of which is shared with [[Ramiro Valdes]]).{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=268}}

Castro's main vacation destination was Cayo de Piedra, a small key island formerly the site of a lighthouse, approximately a mile long and divided into two by a cyclone in the 1960s. He came upon the island by accident while reviewing the region in the aftermath of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Instantly falling in love with the island, he ordered it closed off and had the lighthouse demolished.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=14}} [[Osmany Cienfuegos]] designed the private bungalow, guesthouse, bridge, marina, and a building for the use of the bodyguards and support staff.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=15}} He arrived from his inaccessible private marina near the Bay of Pigs, ''La Caleta del Rosario'', which also housed another residence and guesthouse.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=10}} Castro used two yachts, ''Aquarama I'', confiscated from a Batista Government official and later in the 1970s, the 90-foot white hull ''Aquarama II''. ''Aquarama II'', which was decorated with wood donated from [[Angola]], had two double cabins, one for Fidel's personal use, a main sitting room, two bathrooms, a bar, a secure communications suite, and was equipped with four [[Osa-class missile boat]] engines gifted from Brezhnev allowing for top speeds of over 42 Knots.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=9}} ''Aquarama II'' had two companion speedboats used by his escort, ''Pioniera I'' and ''Pioniera II''; one was equipped with a large cache of weapons, and another was equipped with medical equipment.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=7}}

Castro also had a keen interest in [[gastronomy]] and was known to wander into his kitchen to discuss cookery with his chefs.{{sfn|Coltman|2003|p=224}} His diet was quintessentially Cuban, based on traditional pescatarian cuisine and the additional influence from his father's native Galicia. All of his food was sourced from Punto Cero or fished from his private island of Cayo Piedra, except for cases of [[Algerian wine|Algerian Red Wine]] gifted initially from [[Houari Boumediene]] and continued by successive Algerian governments and Iraqi figs and fruit jams from Saddam Hussein.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=84}} Castro, who typically woke up in the late morning, usually had tea or fish [[broth|bouillon]] for breakfast accompanied by milk provided from one of the cows that grazed on ''Punto Cero''; they were all bred to provide milk which suited Castro's demanding taste. His lunches were also frugal, consisting of fish or seafood soup with fresh produce. Dinner was his primary meal, consisting of grilled fish, chicken, mutton, or even ''pata negra'' ham on special occasions, along with a large serving of green vegetables. However, he was prevented from eating beef or coffee by his dietician.{{Sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=83}}

Until 1979, Castro's primary vehicle was a black [[ZiL]] limousine, first an armored 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 1750 Berlina|Alfa Romeo 1750s and 2000s]].{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=104}} In 1979, during the Non-Aligned Movement summit at Havana, Saddam Hussein gave Castro his Armored [[Mercedes-Benz W126|Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL]], which he had brought from Baghdad and became his sole transport for the rest of his life. Subsequently, Fidel ordered two mechanics from his bodyguard unit to West Germany to purchase several second-hand Mercedes-Benz 500s to replace the obsolete Alfa Romeos.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=104}} Castro always traveled with at least fourteen guards and four of his aides, spread out over four vehicles: three Mercedes-Benz and one Soviet Lada, which trailed the main convoy (to keep the military presence at a minimal). Whenever he would leave Havana, a fifth Mercedes would join the procession carrying his doctor, nurse, and photographer.{{sfn|Sánchez|2015|p=100}}

''[[Forbes]]'' magazine ranked Castro as the 7th wealthiest ruler in the world at an estimated personal wealth of approximately 900 million US dollars in 2006 (going from 550 million US dollars in their 2005 list). The estimate is based on the magazine's assumption that Castro had economic control over a network of state-owned companies, including [[CIMEX]], Medicuba, the Havana Convention Palace, and the assumption that a portion of their profits went to Castro through investments.<ref name="aljazeera-2006">{{Cite news |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/5/16/castro-denies-900m-fortune-claim |title=Castro denies $900m fortune claim |agency=[[Al Jazeera English]] |date=16 May 2006 |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=28 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128035744/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/5/16/castro-denies-900m-fortune-claim |url-status=live }}</ref> Suggesting that Castro's fortune multiplied, growing from 103 million to 850 million euros (equivalent to 900 million dollars) in just three years,<ref name="informeorwell-2023">{{Cite web |last=Rincon |first=Emmanuel |date=6 October 2023 |title=Las multimillonarias herencias que los socialistas Hugo Chávez y Fidel Castro dejaron a sus familias |url=https://informeorwell.com/america-latina/las-multimillonarias-herencias-que-los-socialistas-hugo-chavez-y-fidel-castro-dejaron-a-sus-familias/ |access-date=11 October 2023 |website=Informe Orwell |language=es |archive-date=14 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014110121/https://informeorwell.com/america-latina/las-multimillonarias-herencias-que-los-socialistas-hugo-chavez-y-fidel-castro-dejaron-a-sus-familias/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="infobae-2016">{{Cite web |title=La fortuna que cosechó Fidel Castro, según la revista Forbes |url=https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2016/11/27/la-fortuna-que-cosecho-fidel-castro-segun-la-revista-forbes/ |access-date=11 October 2023 |website=infobae |language=es-ES |archive-date=14 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014110119/https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2016/11/27/la-fortuna-que-cosecho-fidel-castro-segun-la-revista-forbes/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="clarin-2016">{{Cite web |last=Clarín.com |date=28 November 2016 |title=La fortuna y extravagante vida de Fidel Castro, según Forbes |url=https://www.clarin.com/mundo/fortuna-extravagante-fidel-castro-forbes_0_Sy3TY3Kzg.html |access-date=11 October 2023 |website=Clarín |language=es |archive-date=14 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014110120/https://www.clarin.com/mundo/fortuna-extravagante-fidel-castro-forbes_0_Sy3TY3Kzg.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the ''Forbes'' article also referred to rumours of Castro's [[Banking in Switzerland|Swiss bank]] accounts with "large stashes" of this fortune.<ref name="aljazeera-2006"/> According to Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a former personal bodyguard of Castro, his assets included Cayo Piedra, a private island; over twenty mansions; a marina with yachts; encrypted bank accounts; and a gold mine.<ref name="informeorwell-2023"/><ref name="infobae-2016"/><ref name="clarin-2016"/>