brett bahr has more on his death. >>reporter: in the end his speeches had grown shorter, his appearances more rare, but fidel castro's tone remains defiant as ever. [speaking spanish] >> reporter: socialism or de death. fidel castro loved to hate america at every political t turn.

station's kellie cowan is on brett bahr takes a look at the rise and fall of the dictator. >> reporter: the man born fidel castro ruz came to power league a ragtag band of bearded rebels to overthrow a dictator. he ended up one himself. castro stood defiantly against ten u.s. presidents. around the world leftists who hated america's influence and but for the u.s., he was the all-too-close face of the bitter cold war. and while the world could never completely dismiss castro politically, over time for some critics he seemed like a char cature with his wiry beard, faded fatigues and 6-inch ci cigars. the response to castro's communist regime came in 1961 when president john f. kennedy backed the failed where cuban exile were captured and sent to prison or killed. the next year american spy planes discovered secret soviet missiles inside cuba. after a 12-day u.s. naval blockade, the soviet union backed down and remove moved the missile. castro was enraged as the world watched two super powers walk away from a nuclear nightmare. in 1980, castro unleashed an more than 125,000 cubans on amer

in washington, brett bahr, fox news. >>> a lot of questions moving forward. does this change america's relationship with cuba. we have a new president-elect with donald trump. castro was sick t played a factor in government decisions and interesting to learn how his brother leads the island nation moving forward be a what that means for folks in the bay area and down south of miami. we will continue to follow the story on "good day tampa bay." >>> time is 6:03. time to check on your local forecast. jim weber is in for lindsay milbourne. good morning, jim. >> jim: good morning to you. on the satellite view, we watched a lot of the clouds first thing variably cloudy skies and we have a cold front which will be working its way down the state and we will be back into more sun as we get into the afternoon. also start to lower some of that humidity as we go through the rest of the weekend. right now we are at 68 degrees. the dew point at 61. the humidity at 78%. currently the winds are out of the north-northeast at 6 miles per hour. pretty wild pretty much everywhe

brett bahr has more on his death. >>reporter: in the end his speeches had grown shorter, his appearances more rare, but fidel castro's tone remains defiant as ever. [speaking spanish] >> reporter: socialism or de death. fidel castro loved to hate america at every political t turn. >> reporter: his own political stock, albeit small, soared during the international custody fight for elian gonzalez. when the u.s. returned his little prince, castro called the moment "a moral victory over impermist america." the man who would lead the small caribbean island to communism was educated by jesuit preach and earned his law degree by the university of revolution in 1953 while 30 of his followingers were killed attacking the barracks. castro was in prison, then deported, but made his way back on an overloaded power boat. after a decade of coups, riots and political rebellion, the people despaired of the government of baa ecstacies at that. he stepped down, left the country and castro seized power on january 1, 1959. he held on fo