Tattooed man, perpetrator, dreamer, tyrant: Even his enemies do not deny that with Fidel Castro's departure, an era comes to an end. For fifty years, he ruled over a rather insignificant island and yet became a protagonist of world politics. Under the watchful eyes of the USA, he introduced communism for the first time in a Western country. He inspired liberation movements but also fascinated Western intellectuals. In Germany, there are few journalists who have been able to observe the Líder Máximo for so long and from such close proximity as Carlos Widmann. Now, he paints the portrait of an epochal power figure of brilliance and eloquence, blessed with charisma and chutzpah - an egomaniacal and brutal charlatan with a murky past, who nonetheless continues to captivate people to this day.