8
Castro Sister: I Worked With CIA
New book reveals Juanita Castro's involvement with US intelligence
By Jason Farago
|
Posted Oct 26, 09 9:14 AM CDT
|
Share
(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.