Fidel
1959
Coming to power after deposing the corrupt Batista, Castro disenchanted the US after it became clear he was leading a Marxist revolution. The US tried various schemes to depose or assassinate Castro, culminating in the disastrous “Bay of Pigs” invasion. Ultimately, communist Cuba would lend support to Marxist governments in Angola and Ethiopia.
Time: Early War
Side: USSR
Ops: 2
Removed after event: Yes
As USSR
One of the key routes into Central America. Owning a battleground adjacent to the US (and 1/3 of the Central American battlegrounds) is worth quite a bit. Coupled with a successful Panama coup and/or Liberation Theology, it can lead to an easy Central America domination.
On the other hand, playing Fidel too early can turn CIA Created into a DEFCON suicide card, if you don’t have any other influence in Africa or the Americas. So it’s often best played for Ops on Turns 1 or 2 (unless you’ve already Decolonized or De-Stalinized into South America/Africa), and worth the event if drawn on Turn 3 or later.
At some point in the Mid War, it’s crucial to take Haiti and/or Nicaragua, as otherwise it’s very easy to realign you out of Cuba with no easy way back in.
As US
For the reasons above, on Turns 1 or 2, it’s probably better to use Fidel’s 2 Ops (in case the USSR drew CIA Created) than to send him to space only to see him return soon thereafter. But if you draw him on Turn 3 or later, he’s worth sending him to space: by this point the USSR is going to have influence in the Americas or Africa anyway, and you might as well deny the USSR a free 2VP (or more) and foothold in Central America until at least Turn 7. Whether you’re then willing to take Cuba depends entirely on whether you have Central America Scoring and your tolerance for risk.
If you do play Fidel for Ops and have the luxury of Ops to spare, you can try to realign Fidel out with the 2 Ops: you have a 34.88% chance of eliminating him entirely. Your odds are of course greatly improved if you take Nicaragua (and maybe Haiti, with Puppet Governments), but then the USSR can just coup you out of those 1-stability countries before you get a chance to realign. So if you’re keen on realigning Fidel, consider playing 1 into Nicaragua on a final Action Round and present the USSR with the dilemma of couping Nicaragua or couping a battleground next turn.
Twilight Strategy 
It’s funny: I consulted my charts to see if your percentage for realignment was correct before I realized that you linked your realignment percentage to my charts. Nice! Glad to see that it’s helping people.
I always wondered how to put stable influence either in Nicaragua or Haiti when I am USSR. You write its crucial, but how to do it for longer period for 1 influence country which is always ready for a coup?
Whenever US find 1 OP spare card it can coup and earn 3-4 influence there (2-3 US influence if there was only 1 USSR influence before).
Well, I personally never put any as USSR. realigment at +0 isn’t too impressive, as you basically “win” all ties. Thus I wait ’till SUA put any INF in Nicaragua/haiti and then coup it, hoping to either roll big (even 3 inf mean you have to sacrifice high card, or risk lost turn) or empty the country.
This is becoming one of my go-to AR7 plays as the US. Drop an IP into Cuba during the turn, then on AR7 take Nicaragua and Haiti with Fidel’s 2 Ops, before surrendering Cuba. If the Russians keep their battleground coup, you get to realign in AR1 at +2.
{If you do play Fidel for Ops and have the luxury of Ops to spare, you can try to realign Fidel out with the 2 Ops: you have a 34.88% chance of eliminating him entirely }
On the rare occasions you get to play Fidel while under Containment, I’d definitely go for it assuming no critical emergency elsewhere.
Do I have a different copy of TS, but Cuba being next to the US gives the US player a +1 on realignment rolls. Or in other words, would that not mean you would have 54.40% chance of success?
You are correct that Cuba’s adjacency to the U.S. provides a +1 for the U.S. player, but this is offset by the +1 given to the Soviet player for having more influence in the target country. Net result is +/-0, meaning a 34.88% chance at success.
Does the US have to have influence in Cuba in order for the Fidel card to work? I don’t understand how people keep saying “take Haiti and Nicaragua with the ops value.” My buddy and I have been playing the card version, not the game. We’re both noobs. Thanks!
Not sure what you mean by “playing the card version, not the game.” I am unaware of any version of Twilight Struggle other than the actual board game, so my response is based solely on the board game.
There is no requirement to play Fidel for the event. The main article and the commenter above talk about taking Nicaragua and/or Haiti before playing Fidel. The main article suggests using Puppet Governments as one way to do that. The commenter above (aitch88) suggests that he would drop an influence in Cuba as the U.S. BEFORE playing Fidel. Remember that you can choose to trigger the event of the opposing superpower’s card either before or after you use it for ops.
So in this case, the U.S. player, on some Action Round (AR) during the Turn, places a single influence in Cuba (which you can always do as the U.S. since it is adjacent to the U.S. space). Then, on the last AR of the turn, the U.S. uses the ops from Fidel FIRST, to place a single influence in each of Haiti and Nicaragua. THEN the U.S. chooses to trigger the Fidel event, losing the single influence in Cuba and ceding control of it to the Soviets. So, long story short: no, you are not required to have influence in Cuba as U.S. to play Fidel, but you do in order to enact the Haiti and Nicaragua plan described by the commenter (aitch88) above.
As a point of strategy, the main article and the commenter (aitch88) then go on to say that, if the Soviets follow the conventional strategy of coup’ing a battleground country in AR1 of the next Turn, then the U.S. can attempt to Realign the Soviets out of Cuba at a +2 advantage, thereby gaining a significant advantage in that Realignment attempt. Sounds like a pretty good strategy to me!