638 ways to kill Castro

[Jamie_B]

Also comes by way of my netscape homepage...

[url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,1835930,00.html"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,1835930,00.html[/url]

[quote]638 ways to kill Castro

The CIA's outlandish plots to bump off the Cuban dictator would put 007 to shame ... poison pills, toxic cigars and exploding molluscs. Once he even offered to shoot himself, reports Duncan Campbell

Thursday August 3, 2006
The Guardian


For nearly half a century, the CIA and Cuban exiles have been trying to devise ways to assassinate Fidel Castro, who is currently laid low in Cuba following an operation for intestinal bleeding. None of the plots, of course, succeeded, but, then, many of them would probably be rejected as too fanciful for a James Bond novel.
Fabian Escalante, who, for a time, had the job of keeping El Commandante alive, has calculated that there have been a total of 638 attempts on Castro's life. That may sound like a staggeringly high figure, but then the CIA were pretty keen on killing him. As Wayne Smith, former head of the US interests section in Havana, pointed out recently, Cuba had the effect on the US that a full moon has on a werewolf. It seems highly likely that if the CIA had had access to a werewolf, it would have tried smuggling it into the Sierra Maestra at some point over the past 40-odd years.

The most spectacular of the plots against Castro will be examined in a Channel 4 documentary entitled 638 Ways to Kill Castro, as well as in a companion book of the same name written by the now-retired Escalante - a man who, while in his post as head of the Cuban secret service, played a personal part in heading off a number of the plots. While the exploding cigar that was intended to blow up in Castro's face is perhaps the best-known of the attempts on his life, others have been equally bizarre.
Knowing his fascination for scuba-diving off the coast of Cuba, the CIA at one time invested in a large volume of Caribbean molluscs. The idea was to find a shell big enough to contain a lethal quantity of explosives, which would then be painted in colours lurid and bright enough to attract Castro's attention when he was underwater. Documents released under the Clinton administration confirm that this plan was considered but, like many others, did not make it far from the drawing-board. Another aborted plot related to Castro's underwater activities was for a diving-suit to be prepared for him that would be infected with a fungus that would cause a chronic and debilitating skin disease.

One of the reasons there have been so many attempts on his life is that he has been in power for so long. Attempts to kill Castro began almost immediately after the 1959 revolution, which brought him to power. In 1961, when Cuban exiles with the backing of the US government tried to overthrow him in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the aim was to assassinate Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara. Two years later, on the day that President Kennedy was assassinated, an agent who had been given a pen-syringe in Paris was sent to kill Castro, but failed.

On one occasion, a former lover was recruited to kill him, according to Peter Moore, producer of the new film. The woman was given poison pills by the CIA, and she hid them in her cold cream jar. But the pills melted and she decided that, all things considered, putting cold cream in Castro's mouth while he slept was a bad idea. According to this woman, Castro had already guessed that she was aiming to kill him and he duly offered her his own pistol. "I can't do it, Fidel," she told him.

No one apparently could. This former lover is far from the only person to have failed to poison Castro: at one point the CIA prepared bacterial poisons to be placed in Castro's hand-kerchief or in his tea and coffee, but nothing came of it. A CIA poison pill had to be abandoned when it failed to disintegrate in water during tests.

The most recent serious assassination attempt that we know of came in 2000 when Castro was due to visit Panama. A plot was hatched to put 200lb (90kg) of high explosives under the podium where he was due to speak. That time, Castro's personal security team carried out their own checks on the scene, and helped to abort the plot. Four men, including Luis Posada, a veteran Cuban exile and former CIA operative, were jailed as a result, but they were later given a pardon and released from jail.

As it happens, Posada is the most dedicated of those who have tried and failed to get rid of the Cuban president. He is currently in jail in El Paso, Texas, in connection with extradition attempts by Venezuela and Cuba to get him to stand trial for allegedly blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976. His case is due to come back before the courts later this month but few imagine that he will be sent to stand trial, and he appears confident that he will be allowed to resume his retirement in Florida, a place where many of the unsuccessful would-be assassins have made their homes.

Not all the attempts on Castro's life have been fancifully complicated: many have been far simpler and owe more to the methods of the mafia who used to hang out in the casinos and hotels of Havana in the 40s and 50s, than they do to James Bond. At one time the CIA even approached underworld figures to try to carry out the killing. One of Castro's old classmates planned to shoot him dead in the street in broad daylight much in the manner of a mafia hit. One would-be sniper at the University of Havana was caught by security men. But the shooters were no more successful than the poisoners and bombers.

Officially, the US has abandoned its attempt to kill its arch-enemy, but Cuban security are not taking any chances. Any gifts sent to the ailing leader as he lies ill this week will be carefully scrutinised, just as they were when those famous exploding cigars were being constructed by the CIA's technical services department in the early 60s. (They never got to him, by the way, those cigars contaminated with botulinum toxin, but they are understood to have been made using his favourite brand. Castro gave up smoking in 1985.)

All these plots inevitably changed the way Castro lived his life. While in his early years in office, he often walked alone in the street, but that practice had to change. Since then doubles have been used, and over the decades Castro has moved between around 20 different addresses in Cuba to make it harder for any potential hitmen to reach him.

Meanwhile, jokes about Castro's apparent indestructibility have become commonplace in Cuba. One, recounted in the New Yorker this week, tells of him being given a present of a Galapagos turtle. Castro declines it after he learns that it is likely to live only 100 years. "That's the problem with pets," he says. "You get attached to them and then they die on you".[/quote]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[b]all part of the Lie that the U.S. doesn't target others for assassination ...


also for those that wonder why Fidel has such a tight grip on the country .... wouldn't you if the govt next door had plotted 638 ways to kill you and lead a coup ? [/b]

[STRAYCAT]

If we really wanted him dead to take over cuba we would just sent a laser guided missle.

[|Bunghole|]

I think that assassination attempts against Castro were more of an issue during the Cold War....since then he has been largely a joke even amongst his own people, a man who's biggest accomplishment is trying to outduel the USA....

I know some Cubans and they will back me on much of this.....Castro was/is fucking crazy in his old age especially.....

[Chris Henrys Dealer]

[quote name='Bunghole' post='308262' date='Aug 3 2006, 09:30 PM']I think that assassination attempts against Castro were more of an issue during the Cold War....since then he has been largely a joke even amongst his own people, a man who's biggest accomplishment is trying to outduel the USA....

I know some Cubans and they will back me on much of this.....Castro was/is fucking crazy in his old age especially.....[/quote]

Bung, I dunno about the largely a joke amongst his own people. I know some Cubans here, and having visited there, I found some tacit support for him. (And not just because big brother was watching). He definitely polarizes opinion.

While i'm not a fan at all of his totalitarian reign as it pertains to freedom of speech and freedom of movement, and feel that he has definitely diverted from his own original aims, Cuba has made some significant achievements. They are one of the most effective & ecologically sound agricultural industries in the world, a health system to die for, and they have access to an equally effective education system. plus nobody goes hungry.

Compare these achievements with Haiti and many central/south american countries which did not have economic blockades against them. I'd say the dominican too, but they actually been quite progressive in designating park systems to maintain ecologically sensitive areas. still, alot of people don't eat enough in the dominican, they don't have access to good health care.

I think when people look back at his reign years later, the fact that he could keep the country running along at a basic level all these years will be looked at as his biggest achievement. Your average Cuban in the street is better off under Castro in terms of literacy, health care and food, then he was under Batista.

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='Chris Henrys Dealer' post='317787' date='Aug 17 2006, 08:37 AM']Bung, I dunno about the largely a joke amongst his own people. I know some Cubans here, and having visited there, I found some tacit support for him. (And not just because big brother was watching). He definitely polarizes opinion.

While i'm not a fan at all of his totalitarian reign as it pertains to freedom of speech and freedom of movement, and feel that he has definitely diverted from his own original aims, Cuba has made some significant achievements. They are one of the most effective & ecologically sound agricultural industries in the world, a health system to die for, and they have access to an equally effective education system. plus nobody goes hungry.

Compare these achievements with Haiti and many central/south american countries which did not have economic blockades against them. I'd say the dominican too, but they actually been quite progressive in designating park systems to maintain ecologically sensitive areas. still, alot of people don't eat enough in the dominican, they don't have access to good health care.

I think when people look back at his reign years later, the fact that he could keep the country running along at a basic level all these years will be looked at as his biggest achievement. Your average Cuban in the street is better off under Castro in terms of literacy, health care and food, then he was under Batista.[/quote]
I don't disagree, but the Cubans I know tell me that for all of the achievments of socialism in their country, at the end of the day, the oppression of freedoms wasn't worth it, which is why they left Cuba for the USA in the first place.

[Chris Henrys Dealer]

Valid point as well.

[Guest bengalrick]

[quote name='Bunghole' post='317793' date='Aug 17 2006, 10:46 AM']I don't disagree, but the Cubans I know tell me that for all of the achievments of socialism in their country, at the end of the day, the oppression of freedoms wasn't worth it, which is why they left Cuba for the USA in the first place.[/quote]

comparing haiti to cuba is like comparing who's shit smell better imo... castrol turned a booming cuban economy of the 1940's and turned it into a shithouse... although, if castro didn't do what he did, batista would have probably done a similar thing in cuba... still doesn't make me feel any better for the cubans who have died or been held in prison for not agreeing w/ big brother...

[RoyT]

All I know is, someday I hope we lift the trade imbargo with them so I can get my self a Cuban Cigar. Them are the shit even if you don't smoke. I go to key west now and then to visit a good friend of mine there, and he always has a few for me, and thats all I think about on my way down there.

[Hooky]

That's a little extreme, Jamie. I know he had that error in the 9th inning last night with Weathers pitching, but still.

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='RoyT' post='317802' date='Aug 17 2006, 08:56 AM']All I know is, someday I hope we lift the trade imbargo with them so I can get my self a Cuban Cigar. Them are the shit even if you don't smoke. I go to key west now and then to visit a good friend of mine there, and he always has a few for me, and thats all I think about on my way down there.[/quote]
I'd like to vacation in Cuba someday, I hear it's quite beautiful.

[quote name='Hooky' post='317805' date='Aug 17 2006, 09:00 AM']That's a little extreme, Jamie. I know he had that error in the 9th inning last night with Weathers pitching, but still.[/quote]

[Chris Henrys Dealer]

[quote name='bengalrick' post='317800' date='Aug 17 2006, 10:55 AM']comparing haiti to cuba is like comparing who's shit smell better imo... castrol turned a booming cuban economy of the 1940's and turned it into a shithouse... although, if castro didn't do what he did, batista would have probably done a similar thing in cuba... still doesn't make me feel any better for the cubans who have died or been held in prison for not agreeing w/ big brother...[/quote]

Not sure if I agree on that front (Haiti vs. Cuba) . I don't think they're anywhere in the same league in terms of performance heatlhwise / education wise and you can gauge that from stats such as the UN HDI rankings etc. And that booming economy of the 40's lined the pockets of a very few people in Cuba. Plus you can't put the blame on it's economic performance solely on Castro. The ensuing economic blockade from day 1 also played a huge part.

And at the risk of sounding like the Cuban Tourist board...great place to visit, well worth it, avoid spending all your time at the resorts if you can, visit the old quarter of Havana. And on the cigar front....go to the govt. approved places. Everyone and their mother on that island has access to "the finest cuban leaf possible"...90% of the time, this isn't the case. Not that I'd know anything about that....*looks around nervously*

also...don't challenge any Cubans to a game of beach volleyball for money no matter how unfit they look. They are a nation of jumping and spiking machines!

[Jamie_B]

[quote name='Hooky' post='317805' date='Aug 17 2006, 11:00 AM']That's a little extreme, Jamie. I know he had that error in the 9th inning last night with Weathers pitching, but still.[/quote]

[Rumble In the Jungle]

alteast castro keeps his people in check!

[Guest bengalrick]

[quote name='Rumble in the Jungle' post='317878' date='Aug 17 2006, 12:28 PM']alteast castro keeps his people in check![/quote]



is that your prerequisite?

this man did a GREAT job of keeping his guys in check... [img]http://img.timeinc.net/time/time100/images/main_hitler.jpg[/img]

i know you were half joking rumble, but you need to think about this sort of thing before posting it... there are many cubans in jail because they were "kept in check"...

[Rumble In the Jungle]

you know im playing. i lived half my life in check in the middle east man. couldn't say what i watned or my ass would be hung in the town square. so yeah, i was playing!

[Guest bengalrick]

[quote name='Rumble in the Jungle' post='317924' date='Aug 17 2006, 01:10 PM']you know im playing. i lived half my life in check in the middle east man. couldn't say what i watned or my ass would be hung in the town square. so yeah, i was playing![/quote]

so you weren't half joking... you were ONLY joking...

my mistake man...