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Castro Sister: I Worked With CIA

New book reveals Juanita Castro's involvement with US intelligence

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 26, 2009 9:14 AM CDT

(Newser) – The sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro worked with the CIA in the 1960s, while the agency was planning to assassinate Fidel and overthrow the revolutionary government. In a new book, Juanita Castro, who now lives in Miami, reveals that she hid opponents of her brothers' regime in her home and that their mother frequently interceded with Raúl to help political prisoners. "The CIA wanted to talk with me," Castro says. "I was left half-shocked, but in any case I told them yes."

When their mother died in 1963, Juanita Castro felt she lost some of her protection against her brothers' regime, reports the Miami Herald. According to her co-author, it was Raúl—who liked Juanita best of his four sisters—who obtained a visa for her to travel to Mexico the next year. She quickly denounced the revolution in a news conference and made her way to the US, where she opened a pharmacy. Her new book, out today, has been shipped in sealed boxes and embargoed in the manner of a Harry Potter release.

Fidel and Raul Castro in a 2004 photo.
Fidel and Raul Castro in a 2004 photo.   (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera, file )
Juanita Castro, the sister of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, talks to reporters about her brother in Miami in 2006.
Juanita Castro, the sister of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, talks to reporters about her brother in Miami in 2006.   (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
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We tended to blame the people lower down, but the orders did not really come from the people lower down. They came from the upper levels, from Fidel, from Che, from Raúl. - Juanita Castro, sister of Fidel and Raúl

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
Acoma
Oct 27, 2009 12:49 PM CDT
Ignore dontlikeyou! He's having fun at our expense. We can ignore him and he will go away. He'll still be hating, but perhaps he'll be contributing here a little less often.
cognitivefilter
Oct 26, 2009 9:59 AM CDT
who has a favorite sister? does this really go on?
d3wd
Oct 26, 2009 7:35 AM CDT
The US meddled in the affairs of someone else's country? Wow! That's unheard of.
 

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