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10/25/09 - Miami Herald - Fidel Castro's sister says she worked with CIA
while in Cuba

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Juanita Castro, sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raúl Castro, cooperated
with the CIA in the 1960s -- a time when the U.S. agency was plotting to
assassinate Fidel and overthrow his revolution -- according to an exclusive
Univisión-Noticias 23 report on her newly published book.

The report also revealed that Juanita, who broke with her brothers'
revolution in 1964, hid government opponents in her home; that Fidel refused
to visit her because the house was ``surrounded by worms;'' and that their
mother often intervened with Raúl to help Castro critics, jailed or
fugitive.

Described as the Castro family's best-kept secret in the weeks that preceded
the release of her book Monday, Juanita's revelation of her link with the
CIA came as a short teaser at the end of a Univisión-Noticias 23 report on
the book broadcast at 11 p.m. Sunday.

Juanita told the program that a person close to her and Fidel told her that
``The CIA wanted to talk with me . . . because they had interesting things
to tell me and interesting things to ask of me. . . . I was left
half-shocked, but in any case I told them yes.''

Maria Antonieta Collins, who co-authored the book and reported the
television story, then added: ``Tomorrow: For the first time, a CIA agent
who became the lifetime protector of a collaborator . . . and who dared
propose to the sister of Fidel that she cooperate with the CIA, archenemy of
the Castro brothers?''

Throughout the early 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in
dozens of plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, overthrow his government and
sabotage the island's economy.

Castro has often put the total number of plots to kill him at more than 600.

While Juanita and Collins gave no other details on the CIA connection,
officials at the television station said Juanita acknowledges in her book,
Fidel and Raúl, My Brothers. The Secret History, that she collaborated with
the CIA both inside Cuba and after she went into exile in 1964.

Univisión-Noticias 23 will broadcast seven more segments of the Juanita
Castro saga this week.

The book, published by Santillana USA, was to hit the stands simultaneously
Monday in the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Spain.

Journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner, who wrote its prologue, told El Nuevo
Herald last week that besides the key revelation the book contains ``very
interesting and unknown news on the family of Fidel Castro, with a very
inside, personal and critical view of the family.''

Juanita has been a public critic of her brothers' government since she left
Cuba.

Now 76, she owned a Miami pharmacy for many years and is the fifth offspring
of Angel Castro and Lina Cruz -- preceded by Angelita, Ramón, Fidel and Raúl
and followed by Emma and Agustina.

In Sunday's TV broadcast, Juanita recalls that hers was ``just one more
Cuban family'' until Fidel and Raúl led the 1953 attack on the Moncada army
barracks that the brothers now celebrate as the beginning of their
revolution.

CREATED CLINICS

After they ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in early 1959, she worked on
creating clinics and hospitals in the countryside.

The revolution soon began executing and jailing opponents and confiscating
private properties.

``I begin to lose the enthusiasm when I see so much injustice and I say,
this is not possible, they are wrong. Someone here is doing things badly,''
she said on the program.

``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.''

A friend now also in exile, Ana Ely Esteva, recalled on the TV program how
Fidel handled the case of a top counter-revolutionary, Humberto Sorí Marín.

``Fidel had told Juanita, tell the mother to sleep well, that nothing is
going to happen to him. And the next day, on the front page of the
newspaper, the execution of Sorí Marín.''

HID REGIME CRITICS

Esteva also recalled that Juanita hid many critics of the Castro regime in
her home. Juanita added that her mother also often helped government
critics.

``My mother got help from whoever could help, especially Raúl because he was
always very generous with her . . . she appealed to Fidel in some cases.''

But Lina Ruz died in August of 1963 and Juanita began to sense she was in
danger.

``When she died, I had a very delicate situation in Cuba because of my
activities against the regime. . . . Of course, with my mother, I always
felt more protected. . . . I thought it would be harder for them to take
drastic measures against me.''

``It was Raúl, who, knowing something about the activities of his favorite
sister. tells her what he knows, and of Fidel's anger, and obtains a visa so
that she can spend time in Mexico with Emma, another of the sisters,''
Collins reported, according to a transcript of Sunday's program provided to
El Nuevo Herald.

Juanita said she last spoke to Raúl in person on June 18 1964, the day
before she left for Mexico. Ten days later, she denounced her brothers'
regime in a news conference.

``Members of the press in Mexico: the person who addresses you is Juanita
Castro Ruz, sister of the prime minister of communist Cuba, Fidel Castro.''

Juanita's 432-page book was pulled together by Collins, a journalist who
first began interviewing her for a book on her life in 1999.

But they put the project aside until earlier this year, Collins said.

Santillana kept the book in sealed boxes and secured pallets to avoid
leaks -- much like the Harry Potter books are guarded until the day of their
release.

Univisión-Noticias 23 negotiated the world exclusive on Juanita's tale with
Santillana. But she could not give other interviews until the book hits the
streets.