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Obsession - Assassinate Fidel

Pt. 9, Cuba-US Court
24 July 1999

Political assassination is one aspect of state terrorism, traditionally utilized by the United States against leaders in many parts of the world. But no other public figure has been the object of such obsessive and unbridled persecution over 40 years as Cuban President Fidel Castro, against whom 637 conspiracies have been detected.

This was affirmed in evidence given by people's witness Colonel José Pérez Fernández, in his exhaustive account of CIA-perpetrated plans to assassinate the leader of the Cuban Revolution, dating back to pre-1959, and which were discovered and neutralized by State Security in some cases, and known of in others.

As early as December 28, 1958, FBI agent Allen Robert Nye was captured and detained in the Sierra Maestra, armed with a Remington caliber 30.06 rifle equipped with a telescopic sight. This man had been sent to Batista by the U.S. government to assassinate Fidel Castro.

In 1959 fresh attempts on Fidel's life were hatched. On March 28 a CIA-backed plan, prepared by notorious thug Rolando Masferrer, leader of a terrorist organization in Cuba during the '40s and '50s, was dismantled. Frank Sturgis, a U.S. citizen who arrived in Cuba in 1958, piloting a boat with arms for the Rebel Army with the objective of "joining" its ranks, was one of the principal authors of plans to assassinate Fidel: for fear of discovery he subsequently fled to his country of origin.

A 1975 report filed by Frank Church, head of a Senate-appointed committee investigating governmental intelligence activities, reveals the participation of U.S. authorities in attempts on the life of Fidel Castro. Church quoted a secret report drawn up by CIA general inspector F. S. Earman on May 23, 1967, detailing assassination plans and FBI proposals for seeking ideal subjects to execute them.

Attempts mentioned in the report included: presenting Fidel with a fishing wet suit infected with a lethal bacteria, and a box of poisoned cigars; and planting an explosive device in a shell located in the area where the leader of the Revolution used to practice underwater fishing, among others.

The witness explained in his statement to the court that those plans were based on the concept of plausible negotiation, so that the United States couldn't be accused as planner, instigator and executor in the case of them being discovered.

In his report, Pérez Fernández testified on the different ways in which the hundreds of attempts were devised, taking into consideration the following variants: visits to social objectives; at public events and places; or the infiltration of terrorist commandos.

Many examples were presented at the hearing. These included the Someillán case, consisting of an attempt to kill Fidel as he passed through a previously studied avenue in the capital; or the explosive charges to be detonated by various individuals during the reception for Ahmed Ben Bela and the welcome for Salvador Allende.

Firing on the President with bazookas and machine guns was envisaged in 1961, during a ceremony on the terrace north of the Palace of the Revolution. Logically, the victims would also include members of the public, an aspect of the policy of sowing terror and panic among the population. As one example of the unscrupulous character and murderous instincts of counterrevolutionary elements, the witness referred to the May 1980 sabotage of Havana's Le Van Tan day care center, when 570 children and over 150 workers were present but where, thanks to a rapid response, no human lives wee lost.

During the '60s, various assassination attempts on leaders of the Revolution such as Blas Roca, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez and Ernesto Guevara were planned. Some of them were to be used as a decoy to eliminate Fidel, for example, at the supposed funeral honors for Juan Marinello.

The lengthy list of frustrated attempts was followed by actions mounted in Cartagena, Colombia, in 1994; Argentina, 1995; the Isle of Margarita (Venezuela) two years later; and, in 1998, Portugal, the host nation for the Ibero-American heads of state summit. There were further plans prior to Fidel's visit to the Dominican Republic in 1998.

The Cuban people has been the principal shield in terms of Fidel's physical integrity, the witness stated. That is a far cry from the alleged police repression claimed by the Revolution's enemies as an obstacle to the success of their plans.

Pérez Fernández additionally mentioned the operations of the State Security forces who, at all times, have acted out of conviction and with heroism."